conditions they give rise to the still more complex body, 

 protoplasm, and this protoplasm exhibits the phenomena 

 of life. I see no break in this series of steps in molecu- 

 lar complication, and I am unable to understand why the 

 language which is applicable to any one term of the se- 

 ries may not be used to any of the others. We think fit 

 to call different kinds of matter carbon, oxygen, hydro- 

 gen, and nitrogen, and to speak of the various powers 

 and activities of these substances as the properties of 

 the matter of which they are composed. When hydro- 

 gen and oxygen are mixed in a certain proportion, and 

 the electric spark is passed through them, they disappear 

 and a quantity of water, equal in weight to the sum of 

 their weights, appears in their place. There is not the 

 slightest parity between the passive and active powers 

 of the water and those of the oxygen and hydrogen 

 which have given rise to it. At 32 degrees Fahrenheit, 

 and far below that temperature, oxygen and hydrogen 

 are elastic gaseous bodies, whose particles tend to rush 

 away from one another with great force. Water, at the 

 same temperature, is a strong though brittle solid, whose 

 particles tend to cohere into definite geometrical shapes, 

 and sometimes build up frosty imitations of the most 

 complex forms of vegetable foliage. Nevertheless we 

 call these, and many other strange phenomena, the 

 properties of the water, and we do not hesitate to be- 

 lieve that, in some way or another, they result from the 

 properties of the component elements of the water. We 

 do not assume that a something called "aquosity" en- 

 tered into and took possession of the oxide of hydrogen 

 as soon as it was formed, and then guided the aqueous 



