26 AS REGARDS PROTOPLASM, ETC. 



or the ocean ; so, similarly, there is vital matter, which, com- 

 posed of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, is the same 

 thing whether in cryptogams or in elephants, in animalcules or 

 in men. What, in fact, Mr Huxley seeks, probably, is living 

 protein protein, so to speak, struck into life. Just such appears 

 to him to be the nature of protoplasm, and in it he believes 

 himself to possess at last a living clay wherewith to build the 

 whole organic world. 



The question, What is Protoplasm 1 is answered, then ; but, 

 for the understanding of what is to follow, there is still one 

 general consideration to be premised. 



Mr Huxley's conception of protoplasm, as we have seen, is 

 that of living matter, living protein ; what we may call, per- 

 haps, elementary life-stuff. Now, is it quite certain that Mr 

 Huxley is correct in this conception ? Are we to understand, 

 for example, that cells have now definitively vanished, and left 

 in their place only a uniform and universal matter of quite in- 

 definite proportions ? No ; such an understanding would be 

 quite wrong. Whatever may be the opinion of the adherents 

 of the molecular theory of generation (namely, that physical 

 molecules combine of themselves into living organisms), it is 

 certain that all the great German histologists still hold by the 

 cell, and can hardly open their mouths without mention of it. 

 I do not allude here to any special adherents of either nucleus 

 or membrane, but to the most advanced innovators in both 

 respects ; to such men as Schultze and Briicke and Kulme. 

 These, as we have seen, pretty well confine their attention, like 

 Mr Huxley, to the protoplasm. But they do not the less on that 

 account talk of the cell. For them, it is only in cells that pro- 

 toplasm exists. To their view, we cannot fancy protoplasm as 

 so much matter in a pot, in an ointment-box, any portion of 

 which scooped out in an ear-picker would be so much life-stuff, 

 and, though a part, quite as good as the whole. This seems to 

 be Mr Huxley's conception, but it is not theirs. A certain 

 measure goes with protoplasm to constitute it an organism to 

 them, and worthy of their attention. They refuse to give con- 

 sideration to any mere protoplasm-shred that may not have yet 

 ceased, perhaps, to exhibit all sign of contractility under the 

 microscope, and demand a protoplasm-ce^. In short, proto- 

 plasm is to them still distributed in cells, and only that measure 

 of protoplasm is cell that is adequate to the whole group of 

 vital manifestations. Briicke, for example, of all innovators 

 probably the most innovating, and denying, or inclined to deny, 

 both nucleus and membrane, does not hesitate, according to 

 Strieker, to speak still of cells as self-complete organisms, that 

 move and grow, that nourish and reproduce themselves, and 

 that perform specific function. " Omnis cellula e cellula," is the 



