THE INORGANIC REALM 563 



between living and lifeless things. Certain naturalists go so far as 

 to insist that even to-da.v no fundamental difference can be found 

 that will absolute!}' distinguish all organisms from all minerals. 

 They say that life consists merely of the activities of protoplasm, 

 that these are determined solely by the combined properties of 

 tlie several chemical elements of which protoplasm is composed, 

 and that already it is possible to match every one of the fundamental 

 properties of protoplasm by an artificial process. For example, if 

 a crystal of copper sulphate be thrown into a solution of potassium 

 ferrocyanide there is formed at once, by precipitation around the 

 crystal, a membrane resembling a cell-wall, which presents every 

 appearance of growing as a consequence of pressure from within and 

 fresh precipitation wherever the two solutions come in contact. 

 The artificial cell thus produced may attain considerable size and 

 branch in various ways. Another striking experiment consists in 

 putting a few grams of mercury into a flat-bottomed dish containing 

 a 10% solution of nitric acid in water, and then placing a crystal of 

 bichromate of potash on the bottom about an inch away from the 

 mercur}'. As the potash salt dissolves it becomes surrounded by a 

 reddish cloud which finally reaches the mercury. Then suddenly 

 the mercury becomes agitated, moves toward the crystal, and 

 envelopes it, very much as certain of the lower animals seize and 

 swallow their pre}\ Finally, an experiment held to be of profound 

 significance as showing in a mineral substance the very essence of 

 growth and reproduction attended by anabolic and catabolic reac- 

 tions, consists in adding to a certian quantity of acetic acid, chemic- 

 ally equivalent amounts, successively, of phosphorous pentachlo- 

 ride, zinc ethyl, and oxygen. As a result there is formed double the 

 original amount of acetic acid plus several substances which cor- 

 respond to the by-products of organic metabolism.^ Here, then, we 

 have what is regarded as the life-history of a molecule, which, so 

 long as it is fed, grows and reproduces as if by fission and excretes 

 much as a bacterium would do. 



^ For the benefit of students familiar with organic chemistry the 

 transformations above referred to may be expressed by the following 

 equations copied from Les Problcmes de la Vie, by E. Giglio-Tos. Part I, 

 1900, pp. 20, 21. 



