in fact, Mr. Huxley seeks, probably, is living protein- 

 protein, so to speak, struck into life. Just such appears 

 to him to be the nature of protoplasm, and in it he be- 

 lieves himself to possess at last a living clay wherewith 

 to build the whole organic world. 



The question, What is Protoplasm ? is answered, 

 then ; but, for the understanding of what is to follow, 

 there is still one general consideration to be premised. 



Mr. Huxley's conception of protoplasm, as we have 

 seen, is that of living matter, living protein ; what we 

 may call, perhaps, elementary life-stuff. Now, is it 

 quite certain that Mr. Huxley is correct in this concep- 

 tion ? Are we to understand, for example, that cells 

 have now definitively vanished, and left in their place 

 only a uniform and universal matter of quite indefinite 

 proportions ? No ; such an understanding would be 

 quite wrong. Whatever may be the opinion of the ad- 

 herents of the molecular theory of generation, it is cer- 

 tain that all the great German histologists still hold by 

 the cell, and can hardly open their mouths without men- 

 tion of it. I do not allude here to any special adhe- 

 rents of either nucleus or membrane, but to the most 

 advanced innovators in both respects ; to such men as 

 Schultze and Briicke and Kiihne. These, as we have 

 seen, pretty well confine their attention, like Mr. Hux- 

 ley, to the protoplasm. But they do not the less on 

 that account talk of the cell. For them, it is only in 

 cells that protoplasm exists. To their view, we cannot 

 fancy protoplasm as so much matter in a pot, in an oint- 

 ment-box, any portion of which scooped out in an ear- 

 picker would be so much life-stuff, and, though a part, 

 quite as good as the whole. This seems to be Mr. 

 Huxley's conception, but it is not theirs. A certain 



