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constant signification whenever it is employed, it seems 

 to me that we are logically bound to apply to the proto- 

 plasm, or physical basis of life, the same conceptions as 

 those which are held to be legitimate elsewhere. If the 

 phenomena exhibited by water are its properties, so are 

 those presented by protoplasm, living or dead, its prop- 

 erties. If the properties of water may be properly said 

 to result from the nature and disposition of its compo- 

 nent molecules, I can find no intelligible ground for re- 

 fusing to say that the properties of protoplasm result 

 from the nature and disposition of its molecules. But I 

 bid you beware that, in accepting these conclusions, you 

 are placing your feet on the first rung of a ladder which, 

 inmost people's estimation, is the reverse of Jacob's, 

 and leads to the antipodes of heaven. It may seem a 

 small thing to admit that the dull vital actions of a fun- 

 gus, or a foraminifer, are the properties of their proto- 

 plasm, and are the direct results of the nature of the 

 matter of which they are composed. 

 . But if, as I have endeavored to prove to you, their 

 protoplasm is essentially identical with, and most read- 

 ily converted into, that of any animal, I can discover no 

 logical halting place between the admission that such is 

 the case, and the further concession that all vital action 

 may, with equal propriety, be said to be the result of 

 the molecular forces of the protoplasm which displays 

 it. And if so, it must be true, in the same sense and 

 to the same extent, that the thoughts to which I am now 

 giving utterance, and your thoughts regarding them, are 

 the expression of molecular changes in that matter of life 

 which is the source of our other vital phenomena. Past 



