

6523 WHAT IS BATHYBIUS ? 
throwing light upon the most recondite of biological prob- 
lems. Without accepting all, or even the chief of the con- 
clusions at which Professor Huxley has arrived from his 
study of protoplasm, he must be deemed right in the impor- 
tance which he assigns to it. Whether seen as the gelati- 
nous sarcode of the Protozoa, occupying the base of the 
animal kingdom, or as the yolk-material out of which the 
embryo of the highest vertebrate is formed; whether we 
observe its plastic mass in the primordial germ of a Proto- 
coccus or of a Volvox, or as it appears in the leaf-bud of an 
oak, it everywhere brings before us the first stage in acts of 
organization in which ifi is the chief, if not the only actor. 
Nevertheless, I am unable to see that our study of proto- 
plasm has brought us nearer than before to a knowledge of 
the origin of that mysterious force which converts inorganic 
into organized material. There yet remains to be bridged 
over that unfathomed gulf which separates death from life— 
the most complex effects of inorganic forces from the sim- 
plest of vital phenomena. We can trace the action and de- 
velopment of protoplasm through successive generations of 
organisms ; but, like the spot where the rainbow touches the 
ground, its mysterious origin recedes as we advance, and a 
weary chase leaves us no nearer our object than when we 
commenced its pursuit. We increase our information re- 
specting the conditions of its existence, but not of its origin ; 
and I believe that from the nature of the problem this igno- 
rance will continue. 
We are asked, wherein does the so-called vital force differ 
from other physical forces? Oxygen and hydrogen combine 
orm water; if you admit vitality, why not require a 
principle of æquosity to explain this combination and its re- 
sultant phenomena? “What better philosophical status,” 
asks Professor Huxley, “has vitality than squosity ?" I 
: reply, we require the admission of no new force to explain 
rud > combination of gases in the formation of water. The 
> à occur in accordance with known laws of affinity. 

