98 The Bible of Nature 



the organic compounds is very intricate. Thus 

 the elements which enter into the composition of 

 a proteid are Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, Nitro- 

 gen, and Sulphur, but the chemical formula of 

 the proteid known as white of egg is C^Hj^- 

 N a O J5y The living body contains such a mix- 

 ture of these complex compounds that we cannot 

 put our finger on any one kind of stuff and say: 

 This is protoplasm or living matter and nought 

 else. It may be that there is an essentially im- 

 portant kind of substance which acts like a ferment 

 on the complex cellular materials brought within its 

 sphere of influence, but it is more probable that 

 there is no one substance which should be called 

 protoplasm. It seems likely that living matter is 

 a mixture (certainly no jumble!) of proteids and 

 other highly complex substances, owing its virtue 

 to their cooperative interaction, just as the secret 

 of a firm's success may depend not on any one 

 partner by himself, but on their combination of 

 talents. 



Although we cannot analyze living matter, nor 

 thoroughly interpret all the changes of mate- 

 rial implied in living, we can trace some of the 

 chains of chemical sequence. We can follow the 

 food through various transformations till it be- 

 comes part and parcel of the living body; we can 

 catch the waste products formed during activity 

 the ashes of the living fire we know that there is 



