570 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
ly changeable substance must have undergone, now one, now another, of its 
countless metamorphoses.” 
This is a brief, but adequate statement of most important scientific facts. It 
brings to view the character of protoplasmic matter, from which the primordial 
cells from which all living organisms, vegetable and animal, spring ; and of which 
they are chiefly composed. It shows us that it can be, and now is, produced in 
laboratory, which warrants Mr. Spencer’s induction, that during the period in 
which things were being formed, the conditions of the laboratory were more than 
fully realized in nature, for the laboratory has not yet demonstrably developed pro- 
toplasm into an organism, while nature has. It shows the exceeding modifiability 
of this matter and its susceptibility of being developed into all-most infinite forms 
of organisms and it warrants the conclusion that it was formed/in the great labora- 
tory of nature, over a long period of time, and under many various conditions, 
and hence would most likely be developed into many varieties of organisms, in- 
stead of one primordial form from which all others were subsequently evolved. 
It gives also the history of all living forms, from organic matter up to the germs, 
and the history of the germs, through the embryonic stages has just been noticed. 
Here arises the question, by what agency has inorganic matter been thus de- 
veloped into organic matter, then into protoplasm, then into germs, then into 
embryos, and then into adult individuals? Mr. Spencer attributes this work to 
force, which as expressed in motion he says follows the line of least resistance. 
Here recall the facts already quoted concerning the great difficulty of effecting 
changes in developed organisms, and the extreme modifiability of protoplasmic 
matter, and the question as to which appears the line of least resistance can be 
answered only in one way, which is unfavorable to the evolution theory. The 
unfailing transmission of the typical peculiarities, it has already been shown, 
makes the origin of species, in the way alleged, inconceivable ; and it is seen that 
the character of protoplasm and the law of force show quite a different origin from 
that alleged. The creation theory as it is presented in the Bible, contemplates 
that all species had a common origin in the great laboratory of nature. Science, as 
formulated by the evolutionists, shows that this common origin was in protoplasm. 
It shows also that the origin of the individual is, and always have been, in this el- 
ement, the laboratory of nature being confined, subsequent to the formation of 
organisms, to the bodies of the organisms. Evolution breaks this order of nature 
in assuming one origin for the individual and a different one for the species. 
The next question that presents itself for consideration is, why do protoplasmic 
cells, indistinguishable from each other, develop into such varied forms, and al- 
ways in the same form as the parent organisms? Mr. Spencer offers an explana- 
tion of this phenomenon, but it is too long for quotation. _ It is to the effect that 
protoplasmic matter is composed of molecules, each of which is constructed of 
many atoms; and that the complexity of the molecules arising from such forma- 
tion is attended with a like complexity of polarity, which gives to the cell germs 
a tendency thus to develop ina certain way. ‘This, it must be observed, is a 
theory based upon several other theories. In the first place, the atomic constitu- 
