38 UNEXPLAINED ORIGINS. 
yield it in abundance, but somehow it seemed to be hatched 
in them. The laboratory in London was its unfailing 
source. The ocean never yielded it until it had been 
bottled. At last, one-day on board the ‘Challenger,’ an 
accident revealed the mystery. One of Mr. Murray’s 
assistants poured a large quantity of spirits of wine into a 
bottle containing some pure sea-water, when lo! the won- 
derful protoplasm Bathybius appeared! It was the chem- 
ical precipitate of sulphate of lime produced by the mix- 
ture of alcohol and sea-water! ‘Thereafter ‘Bathybius’ 
disappeared from science.” : 
The term “protoplasm” has, indeed, been retained by 
writers on biology. The whole body of an animal, and 
the structure of plants, are understood to consist of cells. 
The cells consist of a colorless substance, and this is called 
“protoplasm.” It is a substance of very complex chemi- 
cal and physical make-up, in fact, no chemist has yet been 
able to analyze it and a famous biologist says that very 
probably it may never be analyzed (David Starr Jordan.) 
Protoplasm, like the white of egg, is the basic substance 
of life, yet in the variety of forms which it takes it is of 
“almost unlimited complexity’ (Jordan). Now, a new 
difficulty develops when this complex character of pro- 
toplasm as it is now found in animals and plants is con- 
sidered. Clear (unmodified) protoplasm, as found in 
white of egg and in the white cells of the blood, is the 
structureless substance called albumen. However, pro- 
toplasm varies almost infinitely in consistency, in shape, 
in structure, and in function. It is sometimes so fluid 
as to be capable of forming in drops, sometimes semi- 
fluid, sometimes almost solid. In shape the cells may be 
club shaped, globe shaped, threaded, flat, conical. Some 
protoplasm produces fat, others produce nerve substances, 
others brain substances, bone, muscle, etc., each producing 
only its own kind, uninterchangeable with the rest. Last- 
