I46 HUXLEY 



properties, so are those presented by protoplasm, living 

 or dead, its properties. If the properties of water 

 may be properly said to result from the nature and 

 disposition of its component molecules, I can find no 

 intelligible ground for refusing to say that the prop- 

 erties of protoplasm result from the nature and dis- 

 position of its molecules. 



It may seem a small thing to admit that the dull 

 vital actions of a fungus or a foraminifer are the 

 properties of their protoplasm, and are the direct re- 

 sults of the nature of the matter of which they are 

 composed. But if their protoplasm 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. 1 



The origin of life remains, and will doubtless re- 

 main, an unsolved problem, if for no other reason 

 than the absolute effacement of the primitive forms, 

 the fragility of which is to be inferred from all that is 

 known of the lowest organisms. But the problem of 

 the origin of water, without which life could not have 

 been, also remains unsolved. The chemist can both 

 decompose and produce water ; but, as Huxley asks, 



1 Coll. Essays, i. pp. 152, 154. 



