H4 Protoplasm. 



man and the other animals are identical with 

 the protoplasm of the nettle ; and he, not less 

 than they, at first consisted of nothing more 

 than an aggregation of such corpuscles. Pro- 

 toplasm is their common constituent ; in proto- 

 plasm they have their common origin. At last, 

 as at first, all that lives, and every part of all 

 that lives, is but nucleated or unnucleated, 

 modified or unmodified protoplasm. 



This series of assertions culminates in a 

 dogma still more astounding. Protoplasm, from 

 being " the basis," becomes " the matter of life." 

 Apart from this matter, life is unknown. The 

 "phenomena of life," however vast and varied, 

 exhibit neither force nor faculty that is not 

 derived from the chemical constituents of its 

 material "basis." All the activities of life: 

 vegetable, animal, human ; physical, intellec- 

 tual, religious arise solely (we are told) from 

 " the arrangement of the molecules of ordinary 

 matter." What reason is there, for instance, 

 why thought should not be termed a property 

 of thinking protoplasm, just as congelation is a 

 property of water, or centrifugience of gas ? 

 Professor Huxley protests that he is aware of 

 no reason. We call, he says, the several pheno- 

 mena which are peculiar to water "the pro- 

 perties of water, and do not hesitate to believe 



