1 88 2.] On ArchcBsthetism. 465 



a solid, suitable for the manufacture of sharp-edged tools. 1 But 

 as it is probable that protoplasm is adapted for the phenomena of 

 consciousness by a certain peculiarity of its constitution, it seems 

 evident that other substances having a similar peculiarity may 

 also be able to sustain it. I have elsewhere attempted to dis- 

 cover what this is, in the following language : 2 



"Nowhere does 'the doctrine of the unspecialized ' receive 

 greater warrant than in the constitution of protoplasm. Modern 

 chemistry refers compound substances to four classes, each of 

 which is characterized by a special formula of combination. 

 These are called the hydrochloric acid type, the water gas type, 

 the ammonia type and the marsh gas type. These series are de- 

 fined by the volumetric relations of their component simple sub- 

 stances: thus in the first, a single volume unites with an equal 

 volume of hydrogen; in the second, two volumes of hydrogen 

 unite with a single volume of another element ; in the third, three, 

 and in the fourth, four volumes of hydrogen unite with the single 

 volume of other elements. Hence the composition of these com- 

 pounds is expressed by the following formulas— chlorine, oxygen, 

 nitrogen and carbon being selected as typical of their respective 

 classes: HC1, H.,0, H,N and H 4 C. Now it is an interesting 

 fact that protoplasm Is composed of definite proportions of four 

 simple substances, each one representing one of the classes above 

 named, or in other words, the capacity for proportional molecular 

 combination which characterizes them. The formula C, 4 N 8 H 17 

 expresses the constitution of this remarkable substance. Now 

 although the significance of these combining numbers is unknown, 

 there is a conceivable connection between the characteristic pecu- 

 liarities of protoplasm and the nature of the substances which 

 compose it. It is probable that these, when in combination with 

 each other, exert a mutuallv antagonistic control over each other's 

 especial and powerful tendencies to form stable, and hence dead, 

 compounds. It is therefore reasonable that the terms ' unspecial- 

 ized ' or ' undecided ' should be applicable to the molecular con- 

 dition of protoplasm, and in so far it is a suitable nidus for higher 

 molecular organization, and a capacity for higher forms of force 

 conversion than any other known substance. If aU> in inorganic 

 types, as in the organic the generalized have preceded the spe- 

 cialized in the order of evolution, we are directed to a primitive 

 Cn »<[ition of matter which presented the essentially unspecialized 

 condition of protoplasm, without some of its physical features. 

 . oarc not necessarily bound to the hypothesis that protoplasm 

 is the only substance' capable of supporting consciousness, but 

 to the opposite view, that the probabilities are in favor of other 



'Fraser in American Naturalist, 1S79. P- 4*>- 

 Consciousness in Evolution, kS 7 5,,, 573- 



