Scientific Sophisms. 125 



And yet it is in this complex programme of 

 decomposition, selection, fixation, and rejection, 

 that we are asked to see nothing more than a 

 process analogous to the formation of water 

 from its elements ; and Professor Huxley can 

 see " no break." How wide must a chasm be 

 before it is visible to an Evolutionist ? 



5. "Under certain conditions" only, and not 

 otherwise, do the " lifeless compounds " afore- 

 said " give rise to the still more complex body 

 protoplasm, and this protoplasm exhibits the 

 phenomena of life." What are these conditions ? 

 The answer is that " when carbonic acid, water, 

 and ammonia disappear, and in their place," " an 

 equivalent weight of the matter of life makes its 

 appearance," this appearance and disappearance 

 are due to " the influence of pre-existing proto- 

 plasm." 



From this it has been hastily, but most un- 

 warrantably, assumed that vitality is a result of 

 some particular arrangement of the molecular 

 particles, the chemical constituents of proto- 

 plasm. In other words, that life is a product 

 of protoplasm. But this proposition is demon- 

 strably untrue. 



Protoplasm, as known to us, is non-existent 

 except as produced " under the influence of pre- 

 existing protoplasm." Water, ammonia, and 



