82 THE STORY OF THE LIVING MACHINE. 



able bodies when brought into combination under 

 different conditions. We know that by varying 

 the conditions the chemist can force these ele- 

 ments to unite into a most extraordinary variety 

 of compounds with an equal variety of properties. 

 What more natural, then, than the assumption 

 that under certain conditions these same elements 

 would unite in such a way as to form this com- 

 pound protoplasm; and then, if the ideas con- 

 cerning protoplasm were correct, this body would 

 show the properties of protoplasm, and therefore 

 be alive. Certainly such a supposition was not 

 absurd, and viewed in the light of the rapid ad- 

 vance in the manufacture of organic compounds 

 could hardly be called improbable. Chemists be- 

 ginning with simple bodies like CO 2 and H 2 O 

 were climbing the ladder, each round of which 

 was represented by compounds of higher com- 

 plexity. At the top was protoplasm, and each 

 year saw our chemists nearer the top of the ladder, 

 and thus approaching protoplasm as their final 

 goal. They now began to predict that only a few 

 more years would be required for chemists to dis- 

 cover the proper conditions, and thus make proto- 

 plasm. 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 

 rendered 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 chemi- 

 cal compound. 



