THE ADVENT OF PROTOPLASM 3 



entirety be the physical basis of Life ? Let this ques- 

 tion be granted, it would then appear that the wonderful 

 protoplasm, in its first appearing on this earth of ours so 

 many aeons ago, was a newly-formed organic life-form, a 

 mode of the Life which hitherto, for excellent reasons, 

 had been able to manifest itself only in activities asso- 

 ciated entirely with the inorganic realm. 



One thing is certain, there was a time in the history 

 of the earth when no plant or animal could exist, when 

 protoplasm, which is fundamental to their existence, had 

 not appeared. And a time arrived when, as one might 

 say, at the psychological moment, lo ! protoplasm came 

 into being. Certain conditions were assuredly necessary 

 for its momentous appearance. The earth's crust 

 would have to be sufficiently cool to allow of the con- 

 densation of water vapour into water, for water must 

 have been the first abode of protoplasm and the first 

 plants and animals. The chemical constituents neces- 

 sary to the formation of the living substance must have 

 been in solution in the water, and temperature and other 

 factors, which, perhaps, elude the most scientific imagina- 

 tion, must have established a holy alliance in order that 

 a stupendous and startling incarnation and virgin birth 

 might result. And they are wise men, indeed, whose 

 minds hark back with seemly reverence to the most 

 momentous event in the physical history of the world 

 the advent of protoplasm. 



Professor Schafer, in his much discussed Presidential 

 Address to the British Association for the Advancement 

 of Science, assembled at Dundee in 1912, asked whether 

 we are justified in assuming that only at a remote period 

 in the history of the world, and as it were by a fortuitous 



