96 



KNO\YLEDGE cV SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[May, 1905. 



again than a man can recall his infancy, I should expect 

 to be a witness of the evolution of living protoplasm 

 from non living matter." To these first vital compounds, 

 he attributed a fungoid nature and mode of growth ; and 

 the choice deprived his speculation of any plausibility 

 that might otherwise have belonged to it. Fungi are not 

 self-supp>orting ; they cannot supply themselves with 

 nourishment from the raw materials of the mineral 

 world ; they depend "upon the hospitality of differently 

 organised beings. They were then certainly not among 

 " the first mercies of nature.'" Mr. Herbert Spencer, too, 

 was inclined to regard spontaneous generation as a 

 superannuated process. The leap from the non-vital to 

 the vital, now admittedly impracticable, might have been 

 taken, it seemed to him. when " the heat of the earth's 

 surface was falling through those ranges of temperature 

 at which the higher organic compounds are unstable." 

 But the " reason why " is to seek. A sterilised solution 

 is precisely one which has cooled from a high thermal 

 grade ; a baked brick is similarly circumstanced. Why 

 should the appearance of life in primeval times have 

 been favoured by a state of things fatal to it here 

 and now ? 



The essence of the biological crux resides in " proto- 

 plasm." The word was coined by Von Mohl in 1846 

 with the object of emphasising the importance of the 

 substance signified, which indeed forms the bulk of every 

 organism, animal and vegetable, man, mushroom, and 

 amreba. Huxley rightly termed it " the physical basis of 

 life." adding, however, the infelicitous conjecture that its 

 production might have been one of the lucky hits 

 of nature. It would have been a hit of incalculable 

 moment, but of incalculable improbability. " Odds 

 beyond arithmetic " were against that particular throw 

 coming out of the Lucretian dice-box. The " primal 

 slime" (to use Oken's phrase) is composed of oxygen, 

 nitrogen, hydrogen, and carbon, with minute percen- 

 tages of phosphates and other salts. But these con- 

 stituents are put together in a highly artificial 

 manner. Eight or nine hundred elementary atoms, in 

 fact, go to the making of one molecule of protoplasm, 

 forming a structure of extreme complexity, most deli- 

 cately balanced, and eminently unstable. It results, 

 accordingly, from the employment of specially directed 

 forces, and stores, for the benefit of the producing 

 organism, the energy expended in its construction. Left 

 to itself, it promptly goes to pieces, and yields back its 

 component particles to their native inorganic sphere. 

 The laws there ruling are in truth adverse to the exis- 

 tence of protoplasm ; abandoned to their unmitigated 

 action, it perishes. We should then as reasonably sup- 

 pose that in the geological past, rivers flowed uphill, as 

 that inorganic naturestumbled blindly upon this wonderful 

 postulate and product of life. 



Professor Huxley affirmed life to be " a property of 

 protoplasm," the inevitable outcome of " the nature and 

 disposition of its molecules." And he sought to cover the 

 absurdity of the dictum by claiming as analogous a case 

 wholly disparate. Water, he argued, has qualities totally 

 unlike those of oxygen or hydrogen ; and protoplasm 

 may similarly, by mere intricacy of arrangement, and the 

 evoking of latent affinities, become endowed with the 

 transcendant powers connected with animated existence. 

 " What better philosophical status, then," he exclaimed, 

 " has vitality than aquosity ? "- " True," he added, " proto- 

 plasm can only be generated by protoplasm, in a manner 

 that evades our intelligence; but does any body quite 

 comprehend the modus operandi of an electric spark which 



* CoUuttdEisays, Vol. I., p. 153. 



traverses a mixture of oxygen and hydrogen ? " The 

 illustration, however, is inapt. The electric spark fulfils 

 no constructive function. It simply agitates the mole- 

 cules so as to bring their native affinities into play. It 

 acts like a mechanical blow on dynamite. Further, 

 water is a stable compound, because its formation is 

 attended by loss of energy, and the descent to a lower 

 plane gives permanence to its occupation. But proto- 

 plasm is, in this respect, the antitype of water. It needs 

 force for its composition ; water needs force for its decom- 

 position. Protoplasm needs force plus a suitable appa- 

 ratus : it can be turned out only by an artfully adapted 

 machine with a head of steam on. It is thus continually 

 manufactured by plants under the stimulus of light. 

 They supply the apparatus, sunbeams the energy. If 

 the supply is cut off, the machinery comes to a halt ; 

 protoplasm ceases to be generated ; the plant dies of 

 inanition. 



Many German biologists find themselves compelled by 

 the impossibility of explaining vital activities in terms of 

 chemistry or physics, to associate protoplasm with some 

 kind of psychical activity. ■■ Individuality, at any rale, 

 implies an ultra-material principle; and it asserts itself 

 at the very base of the animal creation. An ama'ba is 

 the simplest of living beings. I'ormerly called the 

 "Proteus animalcule," it is "everything in turn, and 

 nothing long." It can be round or radiated, spherical or 

 lenticular, as momentary convenience prescribes. Organs 

 it has none ; its limbs are conspicuous by absence ; it is 

 "sans everything " that bnlongs to the ordinary outfit of 

 an animated creature. Vet such-like nucleated globules 

 of protoplasm have flourished exuberantly during count- 

 less ages. Adaptability ensured survival. Anamcrbais 

 at home in almost an)' environment. What it has not 

 ready-made, it can supply at a moment's notice. Out of 

 any part of its substance it can improvise feelers and 

 tentacles for the capture of its prey, as well as a stomach 

 for its digestion ; and thus effectively goes through the 

 full round of animal economy. Some varieties, too, are 

 noted builders. These Foraminifera have the faculty of 

 secreting carbonate of lime from sea-water ; and with it 

 they construct fairy dwellings, perforated in all directions 

 to allow of the protrusion of exploratory filaments. 

 I'"ossil-chambered shells of this type are extraordinarily 

 abundant. Their dense conglomeration in the chalk 

 elicited Buffon's exclamation that " the very dust had 

 been alive !"+ The calcain grassier of which Paris is 

 built mainly consists of them ; and to this day, in oceanic 

 depths, the materials of future- capitals are in course of 

 preparation by the monumental industry of these un- 

 pretending organisms. 



Such as they are, they maintain an incomparable status. 

 Incomparable, for instance, as regards the water in which 

 they float. An amoilia incarnates a purpose ; it embodies 

 a spark of individual existence, unconsciously swaying 

 the powers of inorganic nature towards the ends of its 

 own well-being. The subordination is most real, though 

 profoundly mysterious. In the organic and the inorganic 

 worlds, the same laws hold good ; the same ultimate 

 atoms exert their preferences in each ; in neither is an 

 uncaused effect possible. A bullet can no more be fired 

 from a gun that has no charge than a man can lift a 

 finger without a corresponding outlay of food -products. 

 .Accordingly, while plants store and animals expend 

 energy, plants and animals are equally incompetent for 



• Neameister, BcirachluneeK iiber das Westn der LebeHiencheinungen , 

 1903. 

 f Owen, I'ala-oiilology, pp. 11,' 14. 



