BASIS OF PHYSICAL LIFE. 95 



the Physical Basis of Life. In order to convince people 

 that the actions of living beings are not due to any mys- 

 terious vitality or vital force or power, but are in fact 

 physical and chemical in their nature, Prof. Huxley gives to 

 matter which is alive, to matter which is dead, and to matter 

 which is completely changed by the process of roasting or boil- 

 ing, the very same name. " Mutton contained protoplasm 

 of the same nature as was found in every living thing." 

 " As he spoke, he was wasting his stock of protoplasm, but 

 he had the power of making it up again by drawing upon 

 the protoplasm of some other animal say a sheep. 

 (Laughter.)" The matter of sheep and mutton and man 

 and lobster and egg is the same, and, according to Huxley, 

 one may be transubstantiated into the other. But how? 

 By " subtle influences," and " under sundry circumstances," 

 answers this authority. And all these things alive, or dead, 

 or dead and roasted, he tells us are made of protoplasm, 

 and he affirms this protoplasm is the physical 'basis of life, or 

 the basis si physical life* But is it not hard that the dis- 

 coverer of " subtle influences " should laugh at the fiction of 

 " vitality" t By calling things which differ from one another 

 in many qualities by the same name, Huxley seems to think he 

 can annihilate distinctions, enforce identity, and sweep away 

 the difficulties which have impeded the progress of previous 

 philosophers in their search after unity. Plants and worms 

 and men are all protoplasm, and protoplasm is albuminous 



* The heading of his lecture as published in " The Scotsman " for 

 November 9, 1868, is "The Bases of Physical Life," while his commu- 

 nication in the " Fortnightly," February I, 1869, referred to by him as 

 this same lecture, is entitled " The Physical Basis of Life." The iron 

 basis of the candle, and the basis of the iron candle, are expressions 

 evidently interchangeable. 



