Hi ON THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF LIFE 151 



composed, are lifeless. But when they are brought 

 together, under certain conditions, they give rise 

 to the still more complex body, protoplasm, and 

 this protoplasm exhibits the phenomena of life. 



I see no break in this series of steps in 

 molecular complication, and I am unable to 

 understand why the language which is applicable 

 to any one term of the series may not be used to 

 any of the others. We think fit to call different 

 kinds of matter carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and 

 nitrogen, and to speak of the various powers and 

 activities of these substances as the properties of 

 the matter of which they are composed. 



When hydrogen and oxygen are mixed in a 

 certain proportion, and an electric spark is passed 

 through them, they disappear, and a quantity of 

 water, equal in weight to the sum of their weights, 

 appears in their place. There is not the slightest 

 parity between the passive and active powers of the 

 water and those of the oxygen and hydrogen which 

 have given rise to it. At 32 Fahrenheit, and far 

 below that temperature, oxygen and hydrogen are 

 elastic gaseous bodies, whose particles tend to rush 

 away from one another with great force. Water, 

 at the same temperature, is a strong though 

 brittle solid, whose particles tend to cohere into 

 definite geometrical shapes, and sometimes build 

 up frosty imitations of the most complex forms of 

 vegetable foliage. 



Nevertheless we call these, and many other 



