Part 1. 
GENERAL ZOOLOGY. 
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CHAPTER I. 
LIVING MATTER. 
ETURNING to the animal kingdom, we find that 
there runs throughout it a presence of the primary 
basis of life called protoplasm. The living part of all 
organisms (animals and plants) consists of this substance, 
So far as we know, protoplasm cannot, at least under 
present conditions of the earth’s surface, arise spon- 
taneously from less highly organised materials, although 
it is one of the primary properties of protoplasm that it 
can add to its bulk or grow by the aggregation to itself of 
non-living materials.* 
According to present views, the whole animal world 
owes its origin to growth of some primeval protoplasm, and 
the constituent organisms owe their being to the fact that 
this growth is discontinuous. 
The moving, thinking organism which we call a man 
differs only in degree and not in kind from the isolated 
and undifferentiated mass of protoplasm known as Amada. 
Hence it is of primary importance that we should get a 
clear idea of the physical, chemical and physiological pro- 
perties of this basis of life, living protoplasm. 
* This statement does not preclude the possibility of living matter 
having been in the past evolved from non-living matter ; but of this ze 
know absolutely nothing. , 
