44 J. W. SLATER^ ESQ., P.C.S., F.E.S., ON 



THE FOLLOWING COMMUNICATIONS WERE 

 RECEIVED. 



(1) Professor Lionel S. Beale, M.D., F.R.S., writes : — 



February I8fh, 1893. 



While I agree with the general views of the author of the 

 paper, I think the facts compel us to go much farther and draw an 

 absolute line of demarcation between all living and all non-living. 

 So far, no properties discovered in any non-living matter justify 

 the opinion of the origin from it of the living. " And there is 

 good reason for concluding that every form of non-living matter 

 might have existed for infinite ages and under any conceivable 

 physical conditions, without the most minute speck of the simplest 

 living being evolved. 



That which universally distingaishes every form of living 

 matter from matter in every other state is a property, poiver, or 

 agency by which the elements of matter are arranged, directed 

 and prepared to combine, according to a prearranged plan and for 

 a definite purpose. This power cannot be compared with any 

 known powers or properties. Under its influence the rearrange- 

 ment of the elements of matter is effected. The matter so acted 

 upon is always colourless and exhibits no structure when examined 

 by the highest magnifying powers ; and the changes in question 

 only occur while the matter lives. The power may therefore 

 fairly be called vital power and the living matter Bioplasm. Now 

 of the chemical composition of this Bioplasm and of its con- 

 stituent substances we know nothing, and it is doubtful whether 

 we shall be able to ascertain anything concerning its exact nature, 

 seeing that we cannot chemically examine Bioplasm without 

 destroying it. It ceases to be alive and the substances obtained 

 are merely the producf^s which result after its death. '"Protoplasm" 

 has been applied to matter in many different states and the woi'd 

 has never been defined. Matter alive and dead, structureless and 

 exhibiting structure, matter hard and soft, coloured and colourless, 

 opaque and transparent, cooked and uncooked, has been called 

 Protoplasm. Living matter cannot therefore be properly indicated 

 by a word which is also ai)plied to dead matter. 



There is no gradual transition from non-livi)i<j to living, but the 



