SEX IN LIVING FOKMS 71 



one and sometimes the other, as they have been sup- 

 posed to be by some biologists. 



Protoplasm.— All living creatures are organized 

 beings. Most possess a structure and an organism 

 more or less complicated ; but some of the lowest forms 

 are merely little masses of transparent, homogeneous 

 jelly, known as protoplasm. Some of the smallest of 

 these are so minute that one hundred millions of them 

 could occupy the space of a cube one-thousandth of an 

 inch on each side; yet each one runs its course of life 

 as regularly as man himself, performing its proper 

 functions even more perfectly, perhaps. 



Life Force.— To every thinking mind the question 

 often recurs. What makes the fragrant flower so dif- 

 ferent from the dead soil from which it grows? the 

 trilling bird so vastly suj^erior to the inert atmosphere 

 in which it flies? Wliat subtle power paints the rose, 

 and tunes the merry songster's voice? To explain this 

 mystery, philosophers of olden time supposed the ex- 

 istence of a certain peculiar force, which is called life, 

 or vital force, or vitality. 



This supposition does nothing more than furnish a 

 name for a thing unknown, and the very existence of 

 which may fairly be doubted. In fact, any attempt to 

 find a place for such a force, to understand its origin, 

 or harmonize its existence with that of other well- 

 known forces, is unsuccessfuL 



