12 COMPLEXITY OF PROTOPLASM. 



peculiar kind of the constituent molecules, 

 or from their special groupings. The group- 

 ings result from and depend upon the 

 innate specificity of the molecules. Vital 

 activity is to a certain extent modifiable 

 by environment, as Darwin has demon- 

 strated. Environment does sometimes even 

 seem to possess an originating power, but 

 this is only in appearance : it has no such 

 power, it really acts only as a modifying 

 influence, and mainly as a stimulus to the 

 innate cell activity. 3 Throughout the 

 whole of the universe the source of move- 

 ment seems to be within in the atoms and 

 molecules of all in the earth, and in the 

 solar and other systems. 



Protoplasm is well exhibited in the amoeba, 

 and in the living cells of the tissues of 

 animals and plants, where it can be seen 

 by the aid of the microscope. It is an 

 extremely complex organic body, with 

 immensely complex activities ; perhaps, 

 indeed, it is the most complex substance 

 known, and possessed of the most complex 

 activities. It is in fact alive. It can be 



3 " Protoplasm/' writes Professor Dolbear, " organizes 

 itself into cells and tissues in the same sense as atoms 

 organize themselves into molecules, and molecules into 

 crystals." DOLBEAR, p. 281. 



