SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



'37 



and ba less rapidly eliminated than in other cases 

 where it can serve no such useful purpose; for 

 example, in animal protoplasm, where only a minute 

 .trace remains. 



Further, are not bones and shells but the relics 

 of a time when all living matter had an analogous 

 constitution, ;i Lingering-on from generation to 

 generation of conditions which held sway count- 

 less million years ago, because the evolution pro- 

 ducts happen to be useful in imparting rigidity to 

 the frame? Indeed, how else can the calcareous 

 algae and the corals he explained— beings that build 

 up vast reefs in the Indian Archipelago ; or the 

 coceosphaeres, minute spheres of mineral matter, 

 once thought to be mere mineral concretions, but 

 now known to be organisms 1 Such forms of life 

 flourish in countless millions, yet no theory of life 

 save mine takes the slightest heed of them, or 

 seeks to explain why they are continually depositing 

 mineral matter. 



The whole problem of the secretion of mineral 

 matter by living beings is ably explained by sup- 

 posing the mobile protoplasm of to-day evolved in 

 a continuous manner from the molten minerals of 

 the past. 



Nor does this theory depend solely upon the 

 presence of silica in living matter. There are 

 other facts in its favour. For instance, albumen 

 contains a small amount of loosely-bound sulphur, 

 which does not appear to be a very intimate con- 

 stituent of it. No one knows the function of this 

 sulphur, or can account for its presence. Accord- 

 ing to my theory, it is simply lingering on, the 

 relics of a time when it almost entirely replaced 

 oxygen in the organism. With the falling tem- 

 perature of living matter, sulphur was superseded 

 by the lighter and more mobile oxygen, and con- 

 sequently the sulphur that remains is merely an 

 inert mass in the process of elimination, separat- 

 ing out on account of its heaviness in exactly 

 the same way I have supposed silica to have 

 separated. 



Much the same applies to phosphorus in the 

 tissues of the brain and nerves. It has been almost 

 entirely replaced by the lighter and more mobile 

 nitrogen. The small amount of phosphorus present 

 remains merely because it can perform functions 

 of which nitrogen is incapable. Not only is this 

 so, but traces of a still heavier member of the same 

 group of elements — arsenic— have been recently 

 found in certain animals, where it partially replaces 

 the phosphorus in nucleinic matter (-). 



In these cases, then, we have a whole chain of 

 chemical homologues replacing each other in 

 continually decreasing amounts as they increase in 

 heaviness. Thus: — 



Nitrogen (at. wt. 11), abundant. 

 Phosphorus (at. wt. :!1). less abundant. 

 Arsenic (at. wt. 7">), minute traces. 



r_'i Sautier, "Ghem. News," March 23rd, 1900. 



< 1 , gen Cat. wi . Hi), abundant. 

 Sulphur (at. wt. :; - j). less abundant. 



limn (at. wt. l'.\). minute traces, if at all. 



1 ion (at. wt. 12), abundant. 



Silicon (at. wt. 28), traces. 



lii- 1 facts are all strongly in favour of tin- above 

 theory, and are hard to explain otherwise. 



The following words of Gautier are of ini xest 

 in this connection: — "There is still room for 

 research in every organ [for these rare elements], 

 and, thanks to the most delicate methods, for the 

 different elements that we might consider likely, 

 by being substituted as above for the chdmical 

 analogires, to modify the functioning of the organ 

 by reason of certain specific needs. Such would 

 be selenium, in place of sulphur ; negative sulphur, 

 substituted for oxygen ; Cu, Zn, or Mn, replacing 

 iron ; P. As, or even Va itself, playing the part of 

 nitrogen in the more or less complex mole- 

 cules." 



These words, in the light of my theory of evolved 

 protoplasm, are of the utmost significance. Adopt- 

 ing the principle that only those products of evolu- 

 tion were retained which are of use in the animal 

 system, while those which are useless were elimin- 

 ated with the falling temperature of living matt r. 

 we immediately and completely arrive at an ex- 

 planation of the presence in the organism of all 

 such elements, their minute amounts, and the 

 powerful influence they exercise on the health of 

 the body. 



Dr. Allen's theory as it stands is merely of 

 passive interest. It explains no facts, does not 

 involve consequences, and is a self-contained 

 theory. If, however, it is given my slight exten- 

 sion, it immediately becomes pregnant with world- 

 wide consequences, suddenly rolling out the pano- 

 rama of life from the few million years of Lord 

 Kelvin to countless ages when the world was a 

 surging flood of fire. This at once gives a reason 

 why the vital temperatures of different classes of 

 living beings differ from each other ; for the 

 world and living matter both cooled together until 

 the present temperatures were reached, the living 

 matter continually altering its rate of combustion 

 so as to adjust its temperature to that of the 

 surrounding medium. Nevertheless the tempera- 

 ture of living matter continually lagged slightly 

 behind the temperature of the surrounding medium, 

 in much the same way that a thermometer lags 

 behind the temperature of a cooling liquid. 



When modern temperatures were nearly attained, 

 various fragments of living matter began to differ- 

 entiate themselves from other fragments. Parts of 

 the one primeval organism began to live in greal 

 measure in the air, others on land, and a third 

 part kept to the seas. Now it is obvious 

 that life in the air would lose far le-s heat 

 rapidly than life on land, while those portions of 

 living matter which dwell in a heat-condu 



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