80 THE BIOLOGY OF DAILY LIFE. 



But, jesting apart, what is Nature's clear answer to 

 all this ? 



It does matter exceedingly what plant or what 

 animal you lay under contribution. Nay, if you con- 

 fine yourself to the best animal food beef, mutton, 

 &c., unmixed with fruit and vegetables the loathsome 

 and deadly disease of SCURVY is Nature's reply to 

 the rash theorist, who acts upon the principles of the 

 now popular school of physiology. 



To sum up : 



1. We have tried the protoplasm theory on the 

 vegetable and animal kingdoms, and it confounds 

 the distinctions Nature is most heedful to set up. 



2. We have tried it on man's body, and it forces us 

 to put death for life, and, by a parody of Christian 

 teaching, to love our enemy, under the delusion that 

 he is our friend, and even our creator. 



3. We have seen that it confounds the deep distinc- 

 tion laid in a right interpretation of Nature's teaching, 

 between chemical and biological science. 



4. In regard to man's food, it is utterly misleading, 

 and if in any sense a light, it is an ignis fatuus, a 

 " light that leads astray." 



The result is that we must modify the statement to 

 make it correspond to the phenomena of Nature. 



Let us see where the error lies. 



If protoplasm were only a name for a proteid or 

 albuminous substance, containing the elements, carbon, 

 hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, sulphur, and phosphorus, 

 in more or less constant proportions, there could be 

 no objection to that name for a compound which 

 undoubtedly exists, and is widely diffused in 

 organisms. 



