66 MODERN IDEAS OF EVOLUTION 



The protoplasm itself is a highly complex sub 

 stance, consisting of carbon or charcoal, combined 

 with three gases (oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen) 

 and with minute quantities of sulphur and phos 

 phorus, in molecules so complex that more than 

 eight hundred atoms are supposed to be necessary to 

 constitute one of them. But protoplasm alone imme 

 diately decays and disappears, being resolved into 

 ordinary inorganic compounds. Only as part of a 

 living organism can it be in any sense a basis or sup 

 porter of life. Life itself thus remains as an energy, 

 or combination of energies, differing from all others 

 in that while they actuate ordinary matter, it will only 

 actuate organised and protoplasmic matter. 



But it may be said, This is after all a familiar 

 thing. We see an egg, or a spore, or a seed made 

 up of a little protoplasm and a few other substances, 

 and it proceeds of itself to grow and shape itself into 

 a complex organism, passing spontaneously through 

 many processes and changes to that end. This is 

 true ; but do we ever find such a germ occurring in 

 any other way than as a product of a previous living 

 organism ? We can no more obtain the smallest or 

 simplest egg or spore or the simplest animal or plant 

 directly from dead Nature than we can make a world 

 out of nothing. The previous statements give us 

 some idea of the reason of this. In such a process 

 all would be implied that constitutes the material of 

 the whole of the physical sciences and an unknown 



