PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS. Il 
ance; but it is none the less true that even in an amorphous condition 
the materia] which in the ordinary cell takes the form of a ‘ nucleus ’ 
may, in simpler organisms which have not in the process of evolution 
become complete cells, fulfil functions in many respects similar to those 
fulfilled by the nucleus of the more differentiated organism. 
A similar anticipation regarding the probability of eventual synthetic 
production may be made for the proteins of the cell-substance. Con- 
siderable progress in this direction has indeed already been made by Emil 
Fischer, who has for many years been engaged in the task of building 
up the nitrogenous combinations which enter into the formation of the 
complex molecule of protein. It is satisfactory to know that the signifi- 
cance of the work both of Fischer and of Kossel in this field of biological 
chemistry has been recognised by the award to each of these distinguished 
chemists of a Nobel prize. 
The elements composing living substance are few in number. Those 
which are constantly present are carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen. 
With these, both in nuclear matter and also, but to a less 
The chemical degree, in the more diffuse living material which we know 
Bice sab: as protoplasm, phosphorus is always associated. ‘ Ohne 
stance. Phosphor kein Gedank ’ is an accepted aphorism; ‘ Ohne 
Phosphor kein Leben ’ is equally true. Moreover, a large 
proportion, rarely less than 70 per cent., of water appears essential for 
any manifestation of life, although not in all cases necessary for its 
continuance, since organisms are known which will bear the loss of the 
greater part if not the whole of the water they contain without per- 
manent impairment of their vitality. The presence of certain inorganic 
salts is no less essential, chief amongst them being chloride of sodium 
and salts of calcium, magnesium, potassium, and iron. The combina- 
tion of these elements into a colloidal compound represents the chemi- 
cal basis of life; and when the chemist succeeds in building up this 
compound it will without doubt be found to exhibit the phenomena 
which we are in the habit of associating with the term ‘ life.’ ° 
The above considerations seem to point to the conclusion that the 
possibility of the production of life—i.e., of living material—is not so 
Bikice os remote as has been generally assumed. Since the experi- 
life. The ments of Pasteur, few have ventured to affirm a belief in the 
possibility of spontaneous generation of bacteria and monads and other 
spontaneous c : pe : 
generation. | ™icro-organisms, although before his time this was by 
many believed to be of universal occurrence. My 
esteemed friend Dr. Charlton Bastian is, so far as I am aware, the only 
scientific man of eminence who still adheres to the old creed, and Dr. 
Bastian, in spite of numerous experiments and the publication of many 
® The most recent account of the chemistry of protoplasm is that by Botazzi 
(Das Cytoplasma u. die Korpersafte) in Winterstein’s Handb. d. vergl. Physio- 
logie, Bd. I., 1912. ‘The literature is given in this article. 
