138 Protoplasm. 



as alleged by Mr. Huxley, an actual life-matter, 

 everywhere identical in itself, and one which 

 consequently everywhere involves the identity 

 of all the various organs and organisms which 

 it is assumed to compose ? The bricks, says 

 Mr. Huxley, are the same because the clay is 

 the same. But is the clay the same ? Can it 

 be identified, as Mr. Huxley alleges, by a three- 

 fold unity of faculty, of form, of substance ? 



To begin then with this simplest question, 

 that of substance. Are all samples of proto- 

 plasm identical, first, in their chemical composi- 

 tion, and, second, under the action of the various 

 re-agents ? This cannot be affirmed. And it is 

 against the affirmation of this that "we point 

 to the fact of much chemical difference obtaining 

 among the tissues, not only in the proportions 

 of their fundamental elements, but also in the 

 addition (and proportion as well) of such others 

 as chlorine, sulphur, phosphorus, potass, soda, 

 lime, magnesia, iron, etc. Vast differences 

 vitally must be legitimately assumed for tissues 

 that are so different chemically." x 



As to the alleged unities of form and power 

 in protoplasm, according to Strieker, 2 " Proto- 



1 Dr. Stirling : " As Regards Protoplasm," p. 29. 

 1 Whom Professor Huxley calls, " My valued friend Pro- 

 fessor Strieker." (" Yeast" in " Critiques and Addresses," 



