THE BIOLOGY OF DAILY LIFE. 75 



of chemistry and applying them to biology. We shall 

 find it exhibits that wani; of perception of breaks, or 

 barriers, or differing values of columns only too familiar 

 to those who have to teach young children their early 

 lessons in arithmetic, and which we have dignified by 

 the name " calc-spar fallacy." 

 Here are his ipsissima verda : 



" Carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen are 

 all lifeless bodies. Of these, carbon and 

 oxygen unite, in certain proportions and under 

 certain conditions, to give rise to carbonic acid ; 

 hydrogen and oxygen produce water; nitrogen 

 and hydrogen give rise to ammonia. 



" These new compounds, like the elementary 

 bodies of which they are composed, are lifeless. 

 But when they are brought together under 

 certain conditions they give rise to the still 

 more complex body, protoplasm, and this pro- 

 toplasm exhibits the phenomena of life." 



To have been quite fair the Professor should have 

 said that this protoplasm never exhibits a single 

 phenomenon of life unless it is actually in a living 

 organism, or directly taken therefrom. But the calc- 

 spar has evidently been too strong upon him, for he 

 proceeds : 



" I see no break in this series of steps in 

 molecular complication, and I am unable to 

 understand why the language which is appli- 

 cable to any one term of the series may not be 

 used to any of the others. We think tit to call 

 different kinds of matter carbon, oxygen, 

 hydrogen, and nitrogen, and to speak of the 



