12 



it obvious enough that neither the formation nor the action of 

 the watch, or the steam-engine, or the windmill can be due to 

 the properties of the matter of which the machine is made, but 

 that formation and action depend upon the manner in which 

 the parts are fashioned and put together and made to work. 

 And, of course, the suggestion will occur to those who think 

 that if all these machines were to be destroyed and pounded 

 to pieces, the matter would still retain its material properties; 

 although no one could then discover that it had ever taken 

 the form of a watch, or an engine, or a windmill, any more 

 than a chemist from a thorough examination of the mere matter 

 and its properties would be able to premise that it would one 

 day take the windmill, watch, or other form. But however 

 severely faith in materialism may be shaken by thought, its 

 admirers may take comfort in the consideration that, although 

 to their uninformed intellects much may seem doubtful, un- 

 certain, and strange, the high priests of materialism could 

 unquestionably explain all, and make everything clear, if they 

 deemed it desirable and to the advantage of the millions to 

 do so at this time. The final and complete materialistic 

 revelation is to come in good time. 



" Protoplasm " and " Physical basis of Life " have entered 

 into many dictations! utterances, and the words must by this 

 time be familiar to every one. But if we endeavour to ascer- 

 tain the exact meaning which is attached to the words, and 

 try to make an accurate estimate of their value with regard to 

 the new light supposed to have been thrown by their use upon 

 the question of the nature of life and the relation of non-living 

 to living matter, we shall find that our task- is not an easy 

 one. Protoplasm, it is said, is the physical basis of life. The 

 moving matter in the hair of a nettle, or in a cell of vallisneria, 

 the moving matter of the body of an Ameeba or a white-blood 

 corpuscle, white of egg, boiled white of egg, muscle, roasted 

 and boiled muscle, boiled lobster, are, it has been said, com- 

 posed of protoplasm and constitute the physical basis of life. 

 Upon the molecular changes taking place in these different 

 forms of matter, life, it has been affirmed, depends, and all of 

 them, it is said, are composed of "molecular mechanisms." 



No ore can attentively study the statements, and apply his 

 mind to the examination of the assertions which have been 

 made, without observing that the same name, protoplasm, is 

 applied to matter in essentially different states. Living matter 

 is called protoplasm ; dead and boiled and roasted matter is 

 also called protoplasm. Living matter, dead matter, and 

 roasted matter are all the physical basis of life. That which 

 is not only dead, but has been dead for a long time, is the 



