1882.] 



MICEOSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 



145 



so, implies a method of research in- 

 conceivably higher and more analy- 

 tical, than that adopted by these lead- 

 ers of research in minute biology; or 

 else it can be explained as error aris- 

 ing from a method not competent to 

 cope with the conditions of the pro- 

 blem. 



Approach the question of vital ac- 

 tion as displayed by protoplasam 

 fairly. What is that in nature which, 

 above all things, impresses us as we 

 study the phenomena, and the results, 

 of her countless cycles of activity ? 

 The stability of her processes; and 

 the mathematical precision of her ac- 

 tion. Does any one doubt the invari- 

 able and inviolable nature of the laws 

 that control chemical combination 

 and physical phenomena ? Would any 

 amount of paradox or perplexity that 

 might arise in complex experiment 

 induce a man to believe that the pro- 

 portions of carbon and oxygen which 

 constitute carbonic acid are uncer- 

 tain and capricious ? or that the com- 

 bining proportions of oxygen and 

 hydrogen are very uncertain in the 

 synthetic production of water ? 



If you heat a bar of platinum under 

 certain fixed conditions, on two fol- 

 lowing days, you do not expect that 

 it will indicate different powers of ex- 

 pansion, or melt at a lower tempera- 

 ture to-day than yesterday. A given 

 musical note will depend on the same 

 number of vibrations tomorrow as 

 to-day. 



Yes. But it may be said all this 

 applies to the inorganic world. Is it 

 true of that which lives ? Properly 

 understood, I profoundly believe it is. 

 What do we know of life ? Only 

 this with certainty: — that wherever 

 you have life it is inherent in a defi- 

 nite compound. This compound has 

 special and unique properties. But 

 wherever you find it 2J~> protoplasm in 

 the sense in which I use that word, it 

 exhibits the properties of life, and 

 you will nowhere find the properties 

 of life except associated with, and in- 

 herent in, protoplasm. 



Now, has this protoplasm an ascer- 



tainable composition ? Yes; you can 

 analyze it chemically — that is when 

 it is dead — and it is found that its 

 chemical elements are everywhere 

 practically alike. To say that the life- 

 stuff of the lowest fungus, and that of 

 the most powerful human brain, are 

 identical, is, there is no doubt, in some 

 sense, absurd; it is abuse of language; 

 they, without question, differ incon- 

 ceivably. But if you consider only 

 the chemical composition, and dis- 

 coverable physical properties of pro- 

 toplasm from a mildew, or protoplasm 

 from the apparatus of human thought, 

 they are alike. Their difference is 

 potential and not physically manifest. 

 Then we may ask, " How, and in 

 what, do matter living and matter not 

 living difl"er ?" In their properties — 

 and in these they differ as the finite 

 and the infinite differ — absolute and 

 wholly. We may not dwell upon 

 what they are; but we may add that 

 even the chemical reactions of living 

 protoplasm are quite different from 

 those of the substance which repre- 

 resents the protoplasm, when its life 

 is gone. 



Professor Huxley writes concerning 

 protoplasm thus: — " The properties of 

 living matter distinguish it absolutely 

 from all other kinds of things; and," 

 he continues, " the present state of 

 our knowledge furnishes us with no 

 link between the living and the not 

 living."* 



Then, so far as the evidence will 

 carry us, there is to-day in our labor- 

 atories, and in our facts from nature, 

 no evidence of the existence of spon- 

 taneous generation — no phenomena 

 that prove, or even suggest, that what 

 is not living can, without the inter- 

 vention of living things, change itself 

 into that which lives. 



The masters of biology agree that 

 there are none. Only that which is 

 living can produce that which shall 

 live. Dissociated molecules of life- 

 less matter, with no vital affinity to 

 marshal them, are, as a matter of fact, 



*Encyc. Brit. vol. iii., p. 697, gth ed. 



