DARWINISM: ITS WEAK AND STRONG POINTS. 73 



other planets had previously experienced similar trans- 

 formations. 



In contemplating organic .activities which develop 

 germs into adult individuals, having powers of repro- 

 duction, we see nothing in the operations which re- 

 sembles the formations of a crystal in a saline solu- 

 tion. Indeed there is no fundamental resemblance 

 between a crystal and a cell, nor the slightest relation- 

 ship between the products. The history of a crystal 

 is that of a lifeless object an accretion of molecules 

 which never die, nor reproduce themselves. Crystals 

 in the aggregate constitute rocks, and their elements 

 are inanimate and inorganic. In one form or another 

 they have existed forever, but there was evidently a 

 time in the history of our planet when living germs 

 were to be, yet were not. The earth was ready for 

 the incoming of them, but nowhere did they exist. 

 The forces which have long been operating in connec- 

 tion with mineral substances have elaborated an albu- 

 minoid mass, called protoplasm, "the principal ele- 

 ments of which are oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, and 

 nitrogen. In its typical state it presents the condi- 

 tion of a semi-fluid substance a tenacious, glairy 

 liquid with a consistence like that of the white of 

 an unboiled egg. While we watch it beneath the 

 microscope, movements are set up in it : waves trav- 

 erse its surface, or it may be seen to flow away in 

 streams not only w r here gravity would carry them, but 

 in a direction diametrically opposed to gravitation. 

 Though it is certain that these phenomena are in re- 

 sponse to some stimulus exerted on it by the outer 

 world, they are such as we never meet with in simply 

 physical fluid ; they are spontaneous movements re- 

 sulting from its proper irritability, from its essential 



