THE AQUOSITY AEGUMENT. 251 



molecules, I can find no intelligible ground for refusing 

 to say that the properties of protoplasm result from 

 the nature and disposition of its molecules. When 

 hydrogen and oxygen are mixed in certain proportions, 

 and an electric spark is passed through them, they dis- 

 appear, and a quantity of water, equal in weight to 

 the sum of their weights, appears in their place. Is 

 the case in any way changed when carbonic acid and 

 ammonia disappear, and in their place, under the in- 

 fluence of pre-existing protoplasm, an equivalent 

 weight of the matter of life makes its appearance ?" 



These sentences accord with Fletcher's view, and, as 

 far as they go, represent it properly ; but Dr. Stirling 

 and Dr. Beale object that this necessarily implies that 

 the process of making protoplasm is within the com- 

 pass of ordinary chemical manipulation, and also call 

 attention to the fact that water may be formed from 

 its elements in many ways without the intervention 

 of pre-existing water, whereas no particle of living 

 matter can be made except by, and through, already 

 existing living matter which grows at the expense of 

 the pabulum, instead of being .destroyed and forming 

 a third new substance with it, as in all chemical 

 actions. This last is quite true, and constitutes the 

 absolute distinction between protoplasm and all other 

 material compounds, but does not prove that it is not 

 simply a material compound. And in respect to the 

 first part of the above sentence, it is simply not true, 

 for there are many existing chemical compounds which 

 we cannot make, far less one so far out of all ordinary 

 chemical nature. It is not necessary for the material 

 theory that there must exist a natural process whereby 



