MOLECULAR MACHINERY. 19 



ter. If, therefore, the term " machinery " is 

 to be applied to this transparent matter, the 

 word has had a new meaning assigned to it, 

 and syrup or water might be spoken of as 

 " machinery," and would come into the same 

 category as the so-called " molecular machinery" 

 of living matter. This clear, transparent, struc- 

 tureless living stuff came from stuff like itself, 

 which had similar powers and properties. 

 How this can properly be regarded as the child 

 of conditions, the creature of external circum- 

 stances, the offspring of physical force, an out- 

 come of the non-living, it is indeed difficult to 

 understand. Was it not derived from parental 

 living matter ? or have our eyes and under- 

 standings utterly deceived us ? Are its pheno- 

 mena of motion, of increase, and of multipli- 

 cation due to the conversion of the forces of 

 the stuff it lives upon, and not in any way 

 to peculiar power or influence transmitted to it 

 from its predecessors, and manifested by them, 

 but by no form of non-living matter yet dis-' 

 covered ? Is the fact of its derivation and 

 multiplication to be regarded as of no import- 

 ance, and its mere matter, which after all is 

 moved and change/, to be all in all ? Might 



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