(45) ^7 



and attribute its properties to the properties of them. 

 In a chemical point of view, we ought to do the same 

 thing for ice and steam ; yet, for all the chemical iden- 

 tity, water is not ice, nor is either steam. Do we, then, 

 in these cases, make nothing of the difference, and in 

 its despite enjoy the satisfaction of viewing the three 

 as one ? Not so ; we ask a reason for the difference ; 

 we demand an antecedent that shall render the conse- 

 quent intelligible. The chemistry of oxygen and hy- 

 drogen is not enough in explanation of the threefold 

 form ; and by the very necessity of the facts we are 

 driven to the addition of heat. It is precisely so with 

 protoplasm in its twofold form. The chemistry remain- 

 ing the same in each (if it really does so), we are com- 

 pelled to seek elsewhere a reason for the difference of 

 living from dead protoplasm. As the differences of ice 

 and steam from water lay not in the hydrogen and oxy- 

 gen, but in the heat, so the difference of living from 

 dead protoplasm lies not in the carbon, the hydrogen, 

 the oxygen, and the nitrogen, but in the vital organiza- 

 tion. In all cases, for the new quality, plainly, we must 

 have a new explanation. The qualities of a steam- 

 engine are not the results of its simple chemistry. We 

 do apply to protoplasm the same conceptions, then, that 

 are legitimate elsewhere, and in allocating properties 

 and explaining phenomena we simply insist on Mr. 

 Huxley's own distinction of " living or dead." That, 

 in fact, is to us the distinction of distinctions, and we 

 admit no vital action whatever, not even the dullest, to 

 be the result of the molecular action of the protoplasm 

 that displays it. The very protoplasm of the nettie- 

 sting, with which Mr. Huxley begins, is already vitaily 

 organized, and in that organization as mucn superior to 



