17 



tells the assembled medical and scientific men that 

 " the simplest particle of that which men in their blind- 

 ness are pleased to call 'brute matter/ is a vast aggre- 

 gate of molecular mechanisms performing complicated 

 movements of immense rapidity and sensitivity (/) adjusting 

 themselves to every change in the surrounding world. Living 

 matter differs from other matter in degree and not in kind ; 

 the microcosm repeats the macrocosm, and one chain of causa- 

 tion connects the nebulous original of suns and planetary 

 systems with the protoplasmic foundation of life and organ- 

 isation." 



Professor Huxley has been continually propounding and 

 putting forward conjectural utterances of the kind during the 

 last twenty years, and it is surely now time that something 

 more substantial should be brought forward in support of the 

 dogmas than conjectural chains of causation. Just think over 

 the paragraph 1 have read, and try to extract from it any 

 sense it may contain. We are told that " the protoplasmic 

 foundation of life and organisation" is connected with "the 

 nebulous original of suns and planetary systems/' by "one 

 chain of causation." Can an individual be found who will 

 undertake to defend or to expound these nebulous utterances? 

 If they amuse, they will certainly delude and mislead an 

 audience. Here is an example of what is considered good for 

 the purpose of advancing scientific education. That talk of 

 this kind should be deemed likely to enlighten the medical 

 profession, or assist in any way to advance medical education, 

 is most extraordinary. 



It is not pleasant to have to differ from Professor Huxley, 

 for not only has he a multitude of enthusiastic admirers, but 

 he is himself a master in the use of verv robust language, par- 

 ticularly when he deigns to refer to people who do not agree 

 with him. Some who are unable to accept as the exact truth 

 what he affirms to be truth, have been spoken of as bigots, 

 and it is possible that some other epithets may yet be found, 

 to still more decidedly characterise people who are opposed to 

 his doctrines. Only the other day it was said that a truth 

 which, according to Mr. Huxley, had been ' ' trodden under 

 foot, reviled by bigots, and ridiculed by all the world," is 

 "only hated and feared (!) by those who would revile but dare 

 not!" Professor Huxley likes the word "revile." To say 

 that people who differ from you revile you, is, undoubtedly, 

 - an ingenious way of getting out of a great difficulty. When 

 you are asked to explain what you mean by some very con- 

 fident dictatorial utterance, and if you feel that you cannot do 

 so, there is nothing like accusing your opponent of reviling. 



