32 COMPOSITION OF PROTOPLASM. 



life from the lowest plant to the highest 

 animal life. On its first coming into 

 existence it probably differed but little 

 from the highest of the not-living organic 

 bodies, the proteid ferments, because it 

 had to exhibit only the very lowest kind, 

 the first dawnings of life. Perhaps it 

 was by one of the molecules of one of these 

 ferments attracting one or more molecules 

 of some other highly complex body, or by 

 other favourable circumstances, deter- 

 mined by the original designer, causing 

 a slight re-arrangement in the constituent 

 elements, that the first molecule of proto- 

 plasm was made. It is, indeed, 'very 

 probable that something like this really 

 did occur. 



Besides, inasmuch as protoplasm has 

 to serve the purposes of all grades of life, 

 from the lowest to the highest, it must 

 of course vary in its powers, and therefore 

 in its composition and quality : it must 

 vary with the life phenomena it has to 

 exhibit ; it cannot be of fixed chemical 

 composition. The quality of the proto- 

 plasm of animals must differ from that 

 of plants, must be of a higher type, because 

 it has to exhibit higher life phenomena. 

 The protoplasm of the nerves of animals 



