WHAT IS PHYSICAL LIFE 



Certain great discoveries, however, 

 about the mechanism of life, which every 

 one should know and which should be 

 taught in our schools, have done much to- 

 wards modifying the views of biologists on 

 the Darwinian theory. 

 "" The physical basis of life is a sticky sub- 

 stance called protoplasm, and when its re- 

 lation to living growth was first discerned 

 its spontaneous generation seemed as pos- 

 sible as it did to Sir Robert Ball. This 

 conception, however, was very temporary, 

 so that Huxley always winced in after life 

 at the mention of Bathybius, a term which 

 he invented for an imaginary ooze lining 

 the ocean bottom and which he fancied 

 might generate the first beginnings of 

 protoplasm. But on investigating the 

 protoplasm in cells, instead of being a 

 jelly-like thing of simple construction, it 

 proved to be the most complex substance 

 in the world, of such infinite complexity 



