CONCERNING PROTOPLASM. 67 



upon it. The real difference exists in the complexity of the mechanism 

 which responds, and not in the manner in which the stimulus is 

 received or the corresponding act performed. 



Summing up the facts which a study of the Amoeba has elicited, 

 we learn, firstly, that a minute speck of the sensitive living matter we 

 term " protoplasm" may of itself constitute a living being, capable per- 

 fectly of maintaining its existence and its relations with the external 

 world, and presenting in its life-history many striking analogies with 

 life in its higher and more complicated developments. We next see 

 simplicity of structure united to a complex physiology or way of life ; 

 and we learn that, even in its simplest and most primitive condition, 

 this " protoplasm " of ours may present us, in the endeavour to 

 explain its actions and behaviour, with problems whose solution 

 is practically the despair of many minds amongst us. If it 

 puzzles such minds to see the connection between the molecular 

 stirrage of the human brain-cells and consciousness, the question, 

 " How does a sensation received by the soft protoplasm of an Amoeba 

 become converted into contraction of that body ? " must be regarded 

 as equally unanswerable. Nay, we may go further, and affirm that 

 the difficulty of reply arises primarily because of the identity of the 

 two problems. As we shall presently see, both questions involve like 

 considerations ; both deal with states of protoplasm ; both consider 

 the problem of protoplasmic molecules and their movements as re- 

 lated to actions and motions, which exhibit in higher life the addendum 

 termed " consciousness " although whether the latter term may not, 

 after all, be simply a name implying another phase of protoplasmic 

 motion is a suggestion worth our consideration. Suffice it to say, 

 however, that, as yet, there is as much mystery involved in the 

 explanation of the movements of an Amoeba as in the molecular 

 play of the brain-cells of a man. And although the admission may 

 furnish considerations which inveigh against the theory of the evolu- 

 tion of the higher mind from the lower sensations, the argument is 

 two-edged after all. If so much that is inexplicable, and apparently 

 complex, exists within the narrow compass of the animalcule's irrita- 

 bility, it may be reasonably said that, of all things, it were most foolish 

 to deny the possibility of these as yet unknown beginnings of nerve- 

 force having been the forerunners of brain and mind. Eliminate 

 these beginnings from view, indeed, and you will find it hard on any 

 save a theory of special and independent creation, to account for the 

 origin of the mental powers which successively mark the higher 

 animal and the man. 



We have, however, been studying but one phase of protoplasmic 

 existence, and as such, our knowledge can afford us but little aid 

 towards the consideration of the wider part which this substance 

 plays in the phenomena of both animal and vegetable existence. 



F 2 



