IV YEAST 133 



In 1868, thinking that an untechnical state- 

 ment of the views current among the leaders of 

 biological science might be interesting to the 

 general public, I gave a lecture embodying them in 

 Edinburgh. Those who have not made the mis- 

 take of attempting to approach biology, either by 

 the high a priori road of mere philosophical specu- 

 lation, or by the mere low a posteriori lane offered 

 by the tube of a microscope, but have taken the 

 trouble to become acquainted with well-ascertained 

 facts and with their history, will not need to 

 be told that in what I had to say " as regards 

 protoplasm " in my lecture " On the Physical 

 Basis of Life" (Vol. I. of these Essays, p. 130), 

 there was nothing new; and, as I hope, no- 

 thing that the present state of knowledge does 

 not justify us in believing to be true. Under these 

 circumstances, my surprise may be imagined, when 

 I found, that the mere statement of facts and of 

 views, long familiar to me as part of the common 

 scientific property of Continental workers, raised a 

 sort of storm in this country, not only by exciting 

 the wrath of unscientific persons whose pet pre- 

 judices they seemed to touch, but by giving rise to 

 quite superfluous explosions on the part of some 

 who should have been better informed. 



Dr. Stirling, for example, made my essay the 

 subject of a special critical lecture, 1 which I have 



1 Subsequently published under the title of "As regards 

 Protoplasm." 



