THE CELL AND PROTOPLASM. 83 



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 protoplasm 

 since these would be a step nearer to the earliest 

 undifferentiated life substance. Indeed so eager 

 was this pursuit for pure undifferentiated proto- 

 plasm, that it led to one of those unfounded dis- 

 coveries which time showed to be purely im- 

 aginary. When this reign of protoplasm was at 

 its height and biologists were seeking for even 

 greater simplicity a most astounding discovery 

 was announced. The British exploring ship 

 Challenger had returned from its voyage of dis- 

 covery and collection, and its various treasures 

 were turned over to the different scientists for 

 study. The brilliant Prof. Huxley, who had first 

 formulated the mechanical theory of life, now 

 startled the biological world with the statement 

 that these collections had shown him that at 

 the bottom of the deep sea, in certain parts 

 of the world, there exists a diffused mass of 

 living undifferentiated protoplasm. So simple and 

 undifferentiated was it that it was not divided 

 into cells and contained no nucleii. It was, in 

 short, exactly the kind of primitive protoplasm 

 which the evolutionist wanted to complete his 

 chain of living structures, and the biologist 

 wanted to serve as a foundation for his mechani- 

 cal theory of life. If such a diffused mass of un- 

 differentiated protoplasm existed at the bottom 

 of the sea, one could hardly doubt that it was 

 developed there by some purely natural forces. 

 The discovery was a startling one, for it seemed 

 that the actual starting point of life had been 



