128 Protoplasm. 



different temperatures would not be water. It 

 is the exhibition of these phenomena, in con- 

 junction with certain others, that constitutes the 

 "aquosity " or wateriness of water. But in no 

 such sense, nor in any sense whatever, is life or 

 " vitality " essential to that species of matter 

 which Mr. Huxley calls "matter of life," or 

 protoplasm. Take from water its aquosity, 

 and water ceases to be water; but you may 

 take away vitality from protoplasm, and yet, 

 according to Mr. Huxley's own affirmation, 1 

 leave protoplasm as much protoplasm as be- 

 fore. Whatever therefore may be the relation 

 which vitality bears to protoplasm, it is a re- 

 lation totally different from that which aquo- 

 sity bears to water. When therefore Professor 

 Huxley asks : " What better philosophic status 

 has vitality than aquosity ? " we answer : Pro- 

 toplasm can do perfectly well without "vital- 

 ity ;" but water cannot for a moment dispense 

 with " aquosity." " Protoplasm, whether living 

 or lifeless, is equally itself; but unaqueous 

 water is unmitigated gibberish." 2 Since then, 

 as Mr. Huxley affirms, protoplasm even when 



1 " Living or dead" says Mr. Huxley : " If the pheno- 

 mena exhibited by water are its properties, so are those 

 presented by protoplasm, living or dead, its properties." 



1 Thornton's " Old-fashioned Ethics," ut sup., p. 165. 



