236 THE EVOLUTION OF LIFE 
Sir William Ramsay, who kindly tested some of the 
solution employed, was unable to detect any phos- 
phorus therein, and only ‘an excessively minute 
trace of sulphur, probably as sulphate.” It seemed 
to me, therefore, that we had in this case to do 
with “the simplest kind of protoplasm,” fashioned 
out of the mere carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and 
nitrogen of the ammoniacal solution, with the 
addition of an ‘‘excessively minute trace of 
sulphur.” 
The protoplasm was fashioned in this case under 
the influence of, and as a result of, the growth of 
the ordinary Bacilli, Cocci, Streptococci and Torule, 
with which the solution had been inoculated. This 
inoculation of the simple saline solution with 
common Bacteria and Torule further showed, as 
I then stated,! that though such organisms were 
“capable of growing freely in the saline infusion with- 
out the aid of light,” nevertheless, ‘ light distinctly 
favours the process, since solutions, similarly inocu- 
lated and left exposed to ordinary daylight, have 
become turbid rather more quickly, even though the 
temperature to which the solution has been exposed 
has been about 11 C. (20° F.) lower than that of 
the incubator.” 
This kind of favouring influence was shown 
all the more plainly when other portions of the same 
saline solution were inoculated from the primary 
experimental fluid. “The organisms in this secondary 
inoculation grew and multiplied less vigorously than 
their predecessors had done when in their own 
1 See Knowledge and Scientific News, Aug. 1905, p. 199. 

