00 CRITIQUES AND ADDRESSES. [iv. 



rence to the base common-sense philosophy of the 

 eighteenth century, which liked to see before it believed, 

 and to understand before it criticised. Dr. Stirling winds 

 up his paper with the following paragraph : 



" In short, the whole position of Mr. Huxley, (1) that all organisms 

 consist alike of the same life-matter, (2) which life-matter is, for its 

 part, due only to chemistry, must be pronounced untenable nor less 

 untenable (3) the materialism he would found on it/' 



The paragraph contains three distinct assertions con- 

 cerning my views, and just the same number of utter 

 misrepresentations of them. That which I have numbered 

 (l) turns on the ambiguity of the word " same/' for a 

 discussion of which I would refer Dr. Stirling to a great 

 hero of "Aufklarung," Archbishop Whately ; statement 

 number (2) is, in my judgment, absurd, and certainly 



1 have never said anything resembling it ; while, as to 

 number (3), one great object of my essay was to show 

 that what is called " materialism " has no sound philo- 

 sophical basis ! 



As we have seen, the study of yeast has led inves- 

 tigators face to face with problems of immense interest 

 in pure chemistry, and in animal and vegetable mor- 

 phology. Its physiology is not less rich in subjects for 

 inquiry. Take, for example, the singular fact that yeast 

 will increase indefinitely when grown in the dark, in 

 water containing only tartrate of ammonia, a small per- 

 centage of mineral salts, and sugar. Out of these 

 materials the Torulce will manufacture nitrogenous pro- 

 toplasm, cellulose, and fatty matters, in any quantity, 

 although they are wholly deprived of those rays of the 

 sun, the influence of which is essential to the growth of 

 ordinary plants. There has been a great deal of specu- 

 lation lately, as to how the living organisms buried 

 beneath two or three thousand fathoms of water, and 

 therefore in all probability almost deprived of light, live. 



