HUXLEY'S EXPRESSIONS INCORRECT. 249- 



" A singular inward laboratory which I possess will dissolve 

 a certain portion of the modified protoplasm ; the solution so 

 formed will pass into my veins, and the subtle influences to 

 which it will then be subjected will convert the dead protoplasm 

 into living protoplasm, and transubstantiate sheep into man." 

 Farther on he remarks " Hence it appears to me a matter of 

 no great moment what plant or what animal I lay under con- 

 tribution for protoplasm, and the fact speaks volumes for the 

 general identity of that substance in all living beings. I share 

 this catholicity of assimilation with other animals, all of which, 

 so far as we know, could thrive equally well on the protoplasm 

 of any of their fellows, or of any plant ; but here the assimi- 

 lative powers of the animal would cease. A solution of smell- 

 ing-salts in water, with an infinitesimal proportion of some 

 other saline matters, contains all the elementary bodies which 

 enter into the composition of protoplasm ; but, as I need hardly 

 say, a hogshead of that fluid would not keep a hungry man 

 from starving, nor would it save any animal whatever from a 

 like fate. An animal cannot make protoplasm, but must take 

 it ready-made from some other animal, or some plant the ani- 

 mal's highest feat of constructive chemistry being to convert 

 dead protoplasm into that living matter of life which is appro- 

 priate to itself." 



These expressions would be partially applicable on 

 Buffon's hypothesis of organic molecules pervading all 

 living things, and forming the different organisms by 

 being set up in different moulds, while they are scat- 

 tered, but not individually destroyed, at death. But 

 Huxley repudiates that hypothesis, and the passage 

 stands in its apparent inconsistency. Can we, there- 

 fore, wonder that Mr. Thornton should write thus in 

 the Contemporary Revieiv, in 1872, in a paper entitled 

 " Huxleyism ?" 



After saying that a thing cannot exist without its 

 properties, and instancing water, he goes on : 



