144 THE ORIGIN OF LIFE 



for the simple reason that they do not consist of 

 chemical changes but of physical effects. 



The minute cellular membrane would then be the 

 result of physical effects which could be handed on 

 from generation to generation, owing to the par- 

 ticular structure and type of motion in the nucleus. 

 One great obstacle in the way of studying the 

 structure of living cells is that, by fixing or staining, 

 that structure may be, and most probably is, altered. 

 The dead cell has been studied so minutely, that the 

 living cell, which is, after all, what we wish to know 

 most about, has been sadly neglected. In fact, as 

 Fisher has pointed out, some of the reagents used for 

 studying the structure of protoplasm can actually 

 give rise to structures, as in the experiments of 

 Biitschli, already referred to ; so that instead of really 

 studying the minute structure of the cell we should 

 merely be studying the structure we had chosen 

 to give it by the methods of our own choice. 

 Just as if one were to form an idea of what 

 another man's house was like by sending some- 

 body in to turn everything in it upside down or 

 inside out, and then entering it oneself and inferring 

 that it must certainly be most disorderly. 



It is not easy to see how the minute structure 

 of the living cell can be properly studied except 

 by improvements in our optical arrangements, 

 such as increased resolving and magnifying 

 power. 



No doubt there are some reagents which can 

 retain some of the larger structures without adding 



