66 PRESENT-DAY RATIONALISM 



substances in the laboratory, " which were not long ago 

 believed to be formed only by living things ; and there 

 is but little reason to doubt that, when [?] they shall be 

 able to form the substance protoplasm, it will possess all 

 the properties it is now known to have, including what is 

 called its life ; and one ought not to be surprised at its 

 announcement any day." ^ 



In another appendix he describes Prof. Quincke and 

 Biilschle's experiments with emulsions of soap, oils, 

 H^CO^ etc., which show " amoeboid " motions and 

 "streaming" movements something like protoplasmic; 

 but no intelligent reader will be deceived by them as 

 being identical. For there is no nitrogen present, the 

 most important element, with carbon, of the constituents 

 of protoplasm. 



He finally closes his book with the sapient remark : 

 " It is evident that in a chemically homogeneous mass 

 there can be no occasion for changes of any kind within 

 it ; and chemistry alone cannot give us any substance 

 which can give characteristic vital actions ". 



One feels inclined, therefore, to ask what is the use of 

 his giving an illustration of the plume-like figures formed 

 by frost on a window pane ? — under which he writes : 

 "The similarity it presents to vegetable forms is very 

 striking. . . . Such fantastic imitations of inorganic 

 things forcibly suggest vitality. They are too common 

 to be considered coincidences." 



I reply there is no resemblance beyond a slight imita- 

 tion. It is a "chemically homogeneous" structure con- 

 sisting throughout of H.^O and therefore " cannot give 

 characteristic vital actions ". We might compare it with 

 an ostrich feather, the inflorescence of the reed or a fern. 



' Op. cit., p. 283. 



