THE CELL AND PROTOPLASM. 99 



such a supposition was not absurd, and viewed 

 in the light of the rapid advance in the manu- 

 facture of organic compounds could hardly be 

 called improbable. Chemists beginning with 

 simple bodies like C0 2 and H 2 were climbing 

 the ladder, each round of which was represented 

 by compounds of higher complexity. At the top 

 was protoplasm, and each year saw our chemists 

 nearer the top of the ladder, and thus approach- 

 ing protoplasm as their final goal. They now 

 began to predict that only a few more years 

 would be required for chemists to discover the 

 proper conditions, and thus make protoplasm. 

 As late as 1880 the prediction was freely made 

 that the next great discovery would be the 

 manufacture of a bit of protoplasm by artificial 

 means, and thus in the artificial production of 

 life. The rapid advance in organic chemistry ren- 

 dered this prediction each year more and more 

 probable. The ability of chemists to manufacture 

 chemical compounds appeared to be unlimited, and 

 the only question in regard to their ability to make 

 protoplasm thus resolved itself into the question of 

 whether protoplasm is really a chemical compound. 

 We can easily understand how eager biologists 

 became now in pursuit of the goal which seemed 

 almost within their reach ; how interested they 

 were in any new discovery, and how eagerly 

 they sought for lower and simpler types of proto- 

 plasm since these would be a step nearer to the 

 earliest undifferentiated life substance. Indeed 

 so eager was this pursuit for pure undifferentiated 

 protoplasm, that it led to one of those unfounded 

 discoveries which time showed to be purely im- 



