^'journal, mS"^ ^oyal Microscojncal Society. 283 
matrix, which is formed by and contains, besides the spicula, small 
masses of living or germinal matter. As in other cases, this matrix, 
with the living matter included, constitutes the " protoplasm " of 
Mr. Huxley. 
Dr. Wallich has, however, arrived at a very different conclusion. 
In a paper " On the Vital Functions of the Deep-sea Protozoa," 
pubhshed in No. I. of the ^ Monthly Microscopical Journal,' 
January, 1869, this observer, who has long been engaged in this 
and kindred studies, states that the coccoliths and coccospheres 
stand in no direct relation to the protoplasm substance referred to 
by Huxley under the name of Bathyhius. The former are derived 
from their parent coccospheres, which are independent structures 
altogether. Bathyhius" instead of being a widely-extending 
living protoplasm which grows at the expense of inorganic ele- 
ments, is rather to be regarded as a complex mass of slime with 
many foreign bodies and the debris of living organisms which have 
passed away. Numerous living forms are, however, still found 
on it. 
Dr. WalKch is of opinion that each coccosphere is just as much 
an independent structure as Thalassicolla or Collosphsera, and that, 
as in other cases, "nutrition is effected by a vital act," which 
enables the organism to extract from the surrounding medium 
the elements adapted for its nutrition. These are at length con- 
verted into its sarcode and shell material. In fact, in these lowest 
simplest forms, we find evidence of the working of an inherent 
vital power, and in them nutrition seems to be conducted upon 
the same principles as in the highest and most complex beings. In 
all cases the process involves, besides physical and chemical changes, 
purely vital actio7is, v^^hich cannot be imitated, and which cannot be 
explained by Physics and Chemistry. 
Chemistry of Protoplasm. 
From what has been said already, it must be obvious that the 
chemistry of the complex matter now termed protoplasm, embraces 
the chemistry of the formed matter, and the chemistry of the active, 
living, growing, matter, of the organism. By chemical analysis we 
can ascertain the composition of the first, and can learn many facts 
concerning its elementary chemical characters ; but it is obvious 
that chemistry can teach us little with regard to the composition 
of the living matter, for we kill it when we attempt to analyze it ; 
and in truth we analyze not the living matter, but the substances 
resulting from its death. Of course any one may say that the 
inanimate substances he obtains were the actual things of which 
the living matter was composed, but it is a mere assertion, for the 
bodies in question cannot be detected in the matter while it is 
VOL. I. X 
