10 ELEMENTS OF BIOLOGY. 



and its properties are the resultant of the combined proper- 

 ties of these two gases. It is a definite chemical compound, 

 having definite and constant properties, and there is no 

 kind of necessity for ascribing the properties of water to any 

 assumed principle of " aquosity." It is to be remembered, 

 however, that there is only one kind of water, and its pro- 

 perties are universally the same. In the same way, albumi- 

 nous matter, or protoplasm, is a chemical compound which 

 unquestionably possesses certain properties as the result- 

 ant of the combined properties of its component elements. 

 But this is dead protoplasm of which this is true, and unless 

 this be granted it is difficult to see how to avoid having to 

 deny that dead protoplasm can exist at all. It is conceiv- 

 able nay, more, it is one of the splendid possibilities of the 

 future that the chemist should succeed in forcing the ele- 

 ments of albuminous matter to combine with one another, 

 and thus in manufacturing protoplasm artificially in the 

 laboratory. But this would be dead albuminous matter; and 

 it is wholly inconceivable that the utmost advances of con- 

 structive chemistry should ever lead to the manufacture of 

 living protoplasm. Dead albuminous matter may be re- 

 garded as a tolerably definite and uniform chemical com- 

 pound, and its properties are, beyond doubt, the resultant 

 of those of its component elements. Like water, therefore, 

 dead protoplasm has universally the same physical and 

 chemical properties. Living protoplasm, on the other hand, 

 though still unchanged in chemical composition and physi- 

 cal characters, exhibits the most varied properties, accord- 

 ing as its forms enter into the composition of different ani- 

 mals. If, then, we are to ascribe vital phenomena to the 

 inherent constitution of living matter in the sense that the 

 properties of water are those of its component gases we 

 are left to account, as best we may, for the utterly immea- 

 surable differences between the vital phenomena of a man 

 and of a sponge, both of which may be regarded as com- 

 posed fundamentally of the same materials. 



