4 
Life and its Basis. 
[J anuary, 
simpler proaudts (e.g., urea) ; but he has never yet succeeded 
in forming albumen, much less living protoplasm, without 
the aid of matter which is already in a living state. But 
this power does appear to be possessed by living matter, 
both vegetable and animal. The former adts upon the 
binary compounds above mentioned when in immediate 
contact, under certain conditions of temperature, and ap- 
propriates some of their elements, which it seems to imbue 
with its own life and special charadter ; it assimilates them* 
But, let it be observed, this adtion is confined to some of the 
elements, to the exclusion of others. It is a case of what 
may most properly be called “ Natural Seledtion.” The 
living substance may be said to choose its food, for it is thus 
that it grows. 
Deeply interesting and instructive are the revelations of 
microscopic physiology, as exhibited, for example, in Dr. L. 
Beale’s well-known work on “ Protoplasm and Life.” But 
I can only here allude to a dictum which he was fully com- 
petent to pronounce, that “the progression from the inor- 
ganic to the living is not to be traced step by step. The 
change is instantaneous. The life flashes, as it were, into 
the inanimate particles, and they live.” * 
Perhaps the best path to take, in order to reach a definite 
conclusion in regard to the subjedt before us, will be to trace 
the history of an individual organism during its term of 
life. Let us begin with the vegetable. We must start, of 
course, with the seed, or rather with the germinal cell, which 
is the origin of the future plant. But a difficulty meets us 
at once ; for the earliest form to which this germ can be 
traced is nothing but an atom of simple undifferentiated 
jelly, largely composed of water, without any apparent 
strudture. But have we gone back far enough even now ? 
This atom of protoplasm is already alive. It is, however, 
composed of elements which at one time were non-living, 
viz., carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. These elements are 
now chemically united in the proportions which form albu- 
men. But what force united them thus ? Prof. Haeckelt 
and other writers of the same school start from the formed 
chemical substance ; but they should begin at least one step 
farther back in their analysis before it can be called ex- 
haustive. For what are these same chemical affinities to 
which they ascribe the origination of vitality ? Are the 
elementary substances — carbon, &c. — living beings , who can 
* Beale’s Protoplasm and Life, p. 278. 
f See History of Creation, vol. i., chap. xiii.. 
