THE LIVING MACHINE BUILDING FACTORS. 179 



ing the protoplasmic machine. The building of 

 the higher animal and plant, as we have seen, is 

 the result of the powers of protoplasm ; but proto- 

 plasm itself is a machine. What has been its his- 

 tory ? 



We must first notice that no notion of chemical 

 evolution helps us out. It has been a favourite 

 thought with some that the origin of the first living 

 thing was the result of chemical evolution. As the 

 result of physical forces there was produced, from 

 the original nebulous mass, a more and more 

 complicated system until the world was formed. 

 Then chemical phenomena became more and more 

 complicated until, with the production of more 

 and more complicated compounds, protoplasm was 

 finally produced. A few years ago, under the im- 

 pulse of the idea that protoplasm was a com- 

 pound, or at least a simple mixture of compounds, 

 this- thought of protoplasm as the result of chem- 

 ical evolution was quite significant. Physical 

 forces, chemical forces, and vital forces, explain suc- 

 cessively the origin of worlds, protoplasm, and or- 

 ganisms. This conception has, however, no longer 

 much significance. We know of no such living 

 chemical compound apart from cell machinery. 

 A new conception of protoplasm has arisen which 

 demands a different explanation of its origin. 

 Since it is a machine rather than a compound, 

 mechanical rather than chemical forces are re- 

 quired for its explanation. 



Have we then any suggestion as to the method 

 of the origin of this protoplasmic machine ? Our 

 answer must, at the present, be certainly in the 

 negative. The complexity of the cell tells us 

 plainly that it cannot be the ultimate living sub- 

 stance which may have arisen from chemical evo- 



