60 CRYSTALS AND LIVING UNITS 



They are related to the protoplasm of the plant, as the protoplasm 

 of the plant is to that of the animal. Carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, 

 and nitrogen are all lifeless bodies. Of these, carbon and oxygen 

 unite in certain proportions and under certain conditions to give 

 rise to carbonic acid ; hydrogen and oxygen produce water ; 

 nitrogen and hydrogen give rise to ammonia. These new com- 

 pounds, like the elementary bodies of which they are composed, 

 are lifeless. But when they are brought together under certain 

 conditions they give rise to the still more complex body, proto- 

 plasm ; and this protoplasm exhibits the phenomena of life." 



" I see no break in this series of steps in molecular complica- 

 tion, and I am unable to understand why the language which is 

 applicable to any one term of the series may not be used to any 

 of the others. We think fit to call different kinds of matter carbon, 

 oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen, and to speak of the various 

 powers and activities of these substances as the properties of the 

 matter of which they are composed." 



" When hydrogen and oxygen are mixed in certain proportions, 

 and an electric spark is passed through them they disappear, and 

 a quantity of water, equal in weight to the sum of their weights, 

 appears in their place. There is not the slightest parity between 

 the passive and active powers of the water and those of the oxygen 

 and hydrogen which have given rise to it. At 32° F., and far below 

 that temperature, oxygen and hydrogen are elastic gaseous bodies, 

 whose particles tend to rush away from one another with great 

 force. Water, at the same temperature, is a strong though brittle 

 solid, whose particles tend to cohere into definite geometrical 

 shapes, and sometimes build up frosty imitations of the most 

 complex forms of vegetable foliage." 



" Nevertheless we call these, and many other strange phenomena, 

 the properties of the water, and we do not hesitate to believe that, 

 in some way or another, they result from the properties of the 

 component elements of the water. We do not assume that a 

 something called ' aquosity ' entered into and took possession of 

 the oxide of hydrogen as soon as it was formed, and then guided 

 the aqueous particles to their places in the facets of the crystal, or 

 amongst the leaflets of the hoar-frost." . . . 



" Is the case in any way changed when carbonic acid, water, and 

 ammonia disappear, and in their place, under the influence of pre- 

 existing protoplasm^ an equivalent weight of the matter of life makes 

 its appearance ? . . . 



