ON AECH^STHETISM. 417 



which is characterized by a special formula of combination. 

 These are called the hydrochloric-acid type, the water-gas type, 

 the ammonia type, and the marsh-gas type. These series are de- 

 fined by the volumetric relations of their component simple sub- 

 stances : thus in the first, a single volume unites with an equal 

 volume of hydrogen ; in the second, two volumes of hydrogen 

 unite with a single volume of another element ; in the third, three, 

 and in the fourth, four volumes of hydrogen unite with the single 

 volume of other elements. Hence the composition of these com- 

 pounds is expressed by the following formulas — chlorine, oxygen, 

 nitrogen, and carbon being selected as typical of their respective 

 classes : HCl, HjO, H3N", and H4C. Now it is an interesting fact 

 that protoplasm is composed of definite proportions of four simple 

 substances, each one representing one of the classes above named, 

 or, in other words, the capacity for proportional molecular com- 

 bination which characterizes them. The formula C24N80H,t ex- 

 j>resses the constitution of this remarkable substance. Now, al- 

 though the significance of these combining numbers is unknown, 

 there is a conceivable connection between the characteristic pecul- 

 iarities of protoplasm and the nature of the substances which 

 compose it. It is probable that these, when in combination with 

 each other, exert a mutually antagonistic control over each other's 

 especial and powerful tendencies to form stable, and hence dead, 

 compounds. It is therefore reasonable that the terms ' unspecial- 

 ized ' or ' undecided ' should be applicable to the molecular con- 

 dition of protoplasm, and in so far it is a suitable nidus for higher 

 molecular organization, and a capacity for higher forms of force- 

 conversion than any other known substance. If also in inorganic 

 types, as in the organic, the generalized have preceded the spe- 

 cialized in the order of evolution, we are directed to a primitive 

 condition of matter which presented the essentially unspecialized 

 condition of protoplasm, without some of its physical features. 

 We are not necessarily bound to the hypothesis that protoplasm is 

 the only substance capable of supporting consciousness, but to the 

 opposite view, that the probabilities are in favor of other and un- 

 specialized, but unknown, forms of matter possessing this ca- 

 pacity." 



The condition of living protoplasm was also referred to in the 

 following language in a later publication : * 



* " The Origin of the Will." " Peim Monthly," June, 1877, p. 439. 

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