I."i4 ON THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF LIFE m 



rung of a ladder which, iu most people's estima- 

 tion, is the reverse of Jacob's, and leads to the 

 antipodes of heaven. It may seem a small thing 

 to admit that the dull vital actions of a fungus, 

 or a foraminifer, are the properties of their proto- 

 plasm, and are the direct results of the nature of 

 the matter of which they are composed. But if, 

 as I have endeavoured to prove to you, their proto- 

 plasm is essentially identical with, and most 

 readily converted into, that of any animal, I can 

 discover no logical halting-place between the 

 admission that such is the case, and the further 

 concession that all vital action may, with equal 

 propriety, be said to be the result of the molecular 

 forces of the protoplasm which displays it. And 

 if so, it must be true, in the same sense and to 

 the same extent, that the thoughts to which I am 

 now giving utterance, and your thoughts regarding! 

 them, are the expression of molecular changes in 

 that matter of life which is the source of our other 

 vital phenomena. 



Past experience leads me to be tolerably certain 

 that, when the propositions I have just placed 

 before you are accessible to public comment and 

 criticism, they will be condemned by many zealous 

 persons, and perhaps by some few of the wise and 

 thoughtful. I should not wonder if "gross and 

 brutal materialism " were the mildest phrase 

 applied to them in certain quarters. And, most 



