70 THE BIOLOGY OF DAILY LIFE. 



is its very particular application to man. The physical 

 basis of Death is taken for the physical basis of Life, 

 aye, and must be so taken as a logical necessity, unless 

 we refuse to worship the Idol which Prof. Huxley has 

 set upon its legs. For, observe, it was a not unnatural 

 and practically harmless blunder for early physio- 

 logists to mistake the amseba of the blood for a valuable 

 constituent of that fluid, but this blunder becomes a 

 fearful power for mischief when it is worked up into a 

 system. 



For all who have learned what the leucocyte really 

 is, there could not be a more vivid reductio ad absurdum. 

 The protoplasm-theory, when particularized and 

 applied, breaks down completely. 



But suppose we regain the wild freshness of our 

 morning faith in Professor Huxley and the white 

 corpuscle, and suppose we retain all our confidence that 

 Nature herself teaches thus, and that Huxley truly 

 represents the facts of the case. Let us firmly believe 

 that the white corpuscle is the structural unit of the 

 human body, and a valuable portion of that proto- 

 plasm which is the physical Basis of Life, and accom- 

 pany the Professor into some of the consequences into 

 which this will lead us. Let us hear what appearance 

 Nature presents viewed under this theory. I give 

 his own description : 



" Under these circumstances it may well be 

 asked, How is one mass of nucleated proto- 

 plasm to be distinguished from another ? Why 

 call one plant and the other animal ? 



" The only answer is, that so far as form is 

 concerned, plants and animals are not separable, 



