THE CELL AND PROTOPLASM. lt)l 



so far from being undifferentiated protoplasm, 

 was not an organic product at all, but simply a 

 mineral deposit in the sea water made by purely 

 artificial means. Bathybias stands therefore as an 

 instance of a too precipitate advance in specula- 

 tion, which led even such a brilliant man as Prof. 

 Huxley into an unfortunate error of observation ; 

 for, beyond question, he would never have made 

 such a mistake had he not been dominated by his 

 speculative theories as to the nature of protoplasm. 

 But although Bathybias proved delusive, this 

 did not materially affect the advance and develop- 

 ment of the doctrine of protoplasm. Simple 

 forms of protoplasm were found, although none 

 quite so simple as the hypothetical Bathybias. 

 The universal presence of protoplasm in the 

 living parts of all animals and plants and its 

 manifest activities completely demonstrated that 

 it was the only living substance, and as the 

 result of a few years of experiment and thought 

 the biologist's conception of life crystallised into 

 something like this : Living organisms are made 

 of cells, but these cells are simply minute in- 

 dependent bits of protoplasm. They may con- 

 tain a nucleus or they may not, but the essence 

 of the cell is the protoplasm, this alone hav- 

 ing the fundamental activities of life. These 

 bits of living matter aggregate themselves to- 

 gether into groups to form colonies. Such 

 colonies are animals or plants. The cells divide 

 the work of the colony among themselves, each 

 cell adopting a form best adapted for the special 

 work it has to do. The animal or plant is thus 

 simply an aggregate of cells, and its activities are 



