134 LUCK, OR CUNNING? 



To say wherever there is life there is protoplasm, is 

 to say that there can be no life without protoplasm, 

 and this is saying that where there is no protoplasm 

 there is no life. But large parts of the body are non- 

 protoplasmic ; a bone is, indeed, permeated by proto- 

 plasm, but it is not protoplasm ; it follows, therefore, 

 that according to Professor AUtaan bone is not in any 

 proper sense of words a living substance. From this 

 it should follow, and doubtless does foUow in Professor' 

 Allman's mind, that large tracts of the human body, 

 if not the greater part by weight (as bones, skin, mus- 

 cular tissue, &c.), are no more alive than a coat or 

 pair of boots in wear is alive, except in so far as the 

 bones, &c., are more closely and nakedly permeated by 

 protoplasm than the coat or boots, and are thus brought 

 into closer, director, and more permanent communica- 

 tion with that which, if not life itself, still has more 

 of the ear of life, and comes nearer to its royal person 

 than anything else does. Indeed that this is Professor 

 Allman's opinion appears from the passage on page 26 

 of the report, in which he says that in " protoplasm 

 we find the only form of matter in which life can 

 manifest itself." 



According to this view the skin and other tissues 

 are supposed to be made from dead protoplasm which 

 living protoplasm turns to account as the British 

 Museum authorities are believed to stuff their new 

 specimens with the skins of old ones ; the matter used 

 by the living protoplasm for this purpose is held to 

 be entirely foreign to protoplasm itself, and no more 

 capable of acting in concert with it than bricks can 



