597

Martindale
Protoplasm

THE LIBRARY

OF

THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA

LOS ANGELES

PROTOPLASM.

BEING THE
PRESIDENTIAL ADDREN

DELIVERED BEFORE

FHE KENDAL NATURAL HISTORY ASSOCIATION,
OCTOBER 2ND, 1913.

BY

JOSEPH A. MARTINDALH,

STAVE LEY.

KENDAL:
J. S. JOWETT, PRINTER, 3 WINDERMERE ROAD.

1914.

PROTOPLASM.

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS

DELIVERED BEFORE THE KENDAL NATURAL HISTORY
ASSOCIATION, OCT. 2ND, 1913.

JHAVE chosen for the subject of my Address to-night that
peculiar and as yet, in many respects, mysterious form of
matter called Protoplasm, of which are or were formed the
bodies of all organisms, whether animal or vegetable, that not only
now dwell upon, cover, and vivify the surface of the earth, but
which, through unnumbered ages in the past, have built up rocks
hundreds, nay thousands, of feet in thickness and covering millions
of square miles of area throughout the world. I desire, if time
permits, to speak of its origin and mode of growth, its nature and
properties, and the wonderful manner in which it builds up and
repairs when necessary the bodies of all organic creatures ; and
how by its operation they are fruitful, multiply, and replenish the
earth. For every student of Natural History, — every member of
our Association — whatever branch of Natural Science he selects
for his study and to which he restricts his investigations, must
perforce come sooner or later to study and endeavour to understand,
as far as he can, its character and properties, if he would rightly
and thoroughly comprehend either the living organisms he examines
or their fossil remains.

Origin.

In recent times protoplasm is nowhere found but in the cells of
animals and plants, and as all the organisms existing at the present
day, arose from preceding organisms of the same or similar kinds,
and they in their turn, generation after generation, from others
that produced them ; and as all these, both recent and ancient, live
or did live in an inorganic world of the same character from the
earliest times till now, we are justified in believing that this has

2 Protoplasm :

always been the case since vegetables and animals first appeared
upon the earth. But if, rejecting revelation as some do, we would
ask how did the first organism, whether plant or animal, come
into being, or how was protoplasm first formed, there is nothing
in the world that we can question, and any opinion that we may
form can be nothing else than speculation or an unprovable and
therefore unprofitable theory. The only statement we can make
that seems unshakably true is that, at that early time, the tempera-
ture of the earth's surface must have been much as it is at the
present day, not above that at which protoplasm coagulates and is
killed, nor below that at which it cannot be formed. We may
perhaps speculate further and assume that when the temperature
was higher the elements that enter into the composition of proto-
plasm first combined, and that when the temperature was reduced,
that then the compound so formed acquired the character and
properties which distinguish protoplasm at the present day.

It is the general belief that organic life appeared as a new
phenomenon once, and once only, when the world was young,
though there are enthusiastic men who believe and say that
probably it is still being spontaneously formed de novo, and that
the aphorism 'All life from preceding life' is untrue ; but they can
produce no proof that this is so, and even Prof. Schafer, the
energetic upholder of the purely materialistic view, is constrained
to confess that these men are looking for it in the wrong way and
in the wroag place, though he said in his Address to the British
Association that "we are not precluded from admitting the possi-
"bility of the formation of living from non-living substance."
But possibility is not actuality nor any proof of it, and scientific
men, who require from all who controvert their views the most
rigorous logic and the most definite and absolute proofs of the
truth of what they believe, should be the last to put forward slipshod
arguments that rest on nothing surer than imagination and possi-
bility. So far as we know, new masses of protoplasm are only
produced by pre-existing protoplasm, and these new births are
taking place continuously in bewildering and overwhelming num-
bers of instances every year.

Composition.

"Protoplasm," says Dr. Noel Paton, "is not a substance but a

Its Origin and Composition. 3

"vortex of substances — a vortex constantly sucking in fresh ma-
"terial and as constantly throwing- off the old. To attempt to
" analyse it is hopeless, but when its metabolism is destroyed —
"when it is no longer protoplasm — it is found that the most
"abundant solid present belongs to the group of proteids." This
means that it is not a homogeneous substance, as, for instance,
lime, marble, water, carbon dioxide, &c., but a mixture of proteids
of different molecular composition, and that the molecules of these
proteids are in constant vortical or whirling motion, similar to that
of the rings which come from a smoker's pipe or lips. The
attempt to analyse it is hopeless : ist, because it is impossible to
do so while it is in a so-called living state, that is, in the cells of a
living organism, as the first attempt at analysis kills it, and its
constitution and composition almost instantly change ; 2nd, because
in some cells, especially when young, it may contain little else but
proteids, and in others which are older and more differentiated
there are mixed with it in varying proportions cell-sap and food
matters such as starch, sugar and amides ; and, 3rd, because of
its great complexity and the large and varying number of atoms
which compose the molecules of which it is made up. Even in
what might be considered the same substance it is found that when
taken from different species the number of atoms in a molecule is
very various. Thus, in a molecule of the haematoglobin taken
from the blood of one animal the number of atoms was 1894,
and in that taken from another there were 2304.

The elements that compose protoplasm are Carbon, Hydrogen,
Oxygen, and Nitrogen, with some Sulphur and, in certain cases,
Phosphorus, which in themselves and in inorganic compounds are
lifeless. All plants, except fungi and parasites, take in these
elements by their leaves from the air in the form of gas, and by
their roots from the soil as mineral solutions. In the cells of
plants the compounds absorbed are decomposed, and the elements
again built up into other substances which can be made use of for
growth, and this metabolism is undoubtedly brought about by
chemical and electrical action. Animals, fungi, and parasites do
not and cannot form food from inorganic materials ; herbiverous
animals eating vegetables, and those that are carnivorous devour-
ing other animals, while some fungi and parasites feed on decaying

4 Protoplasm :

organic matter, and others prey upon living organisms. Thus we
see that all protoplasm is derived, directly or indirectly, from and
composed of inorganic elements.

Now, we are not justified in assuming that the elements change
their nature and properties when absorbed by plants. They are
not released from the natural forces that previously affected them,
but remain after absorption as inorganic as they were before, and
continue responding and subject to the same chemical, electrical,
and mechanical forces as when in the earth or in the air. Neither,
on the other hand, are we justified in assuming that additional
powers were bestowed upon them when received into the cells of
plants, or in supposing that they became living and capable of
acting in any different way from that in which they could when
they formed component parts of inorganic salts or gases. The
German saying, ' Ohne Phosphor kein Gedank,' is quoted by
Prof. Schafer with approval, but the atoms of Phosphorus in the
brain can be no more legitimately assumed to think than those in
phosphoric acid or those in the bones of the leg. Undoubtedly
protoplasm is lifeless and dead matter, though it acts as no purely
inorganic element or compound does or can : performs wonderful
operations, builds up structures of marvellous design, repairs them
when injured, provides for future wants before there is any intimation
of their necessity, and finally, most wonderful of all, produces the
seeds and germs of fresh individuals. And as in the inorganic kingdom
neither chemistry, electricity, nor any other natural force, in itself
and by itself, can cause or enable lifeless matter to do such things,
it is evident that the protoplasm in the cells of organic bodies is
under the influence and control of some invisible power which
directs and makes use of it and the chemical and other forces to
which it is subject. That power we call Life, which is the designer
and architect of all organisms, and the efficient cause of all the
wonders they perform.

Structure in Plants.

The bodies of animals and plants do not consist of a single
piece or a few large masses of protoplasm, but are made up of an
aggregate of minute portions which not rarely are microscopic.
In plants these small masses almost invariably construct around
themselves a wall of a substance called cellulose, a carbo-hydrate

Its Structure tn Plants. 5

of the same composition as starch but of different physical proper-
ties. In the embryonic stage of animals similar walled cells are
formed, though later on there is generally no wall round the proto-
plasts, and the tissues of a mature animal therefore have little
resemblance to those of a plant. To study the structure of proto-
plasm the individual cells have to be examined, and to do this
thoroughly requires the use of very high powers of the microscope.
Protoplasm is a colloidal form of matter, semi-fluid, but which will
not pass through a membrane, or only with great difficulty, and
hence it is supposed that its molecules must be comparatively very
large. When examined under slight magnification it appears
semi-transparent and jelly-like, and has generally a granular appear-
ance, but there is no trace of structure, save that in all or most cells
there is a denser portion or nucleus. Young cells of plants are
completely filled with protoplasm which doubtless consists almost
entirely of proteids. But in a very little time, as they grow larger,
cell-sap brought up from the root infiltrates through the walls,
and food matters are poured in from the leaves where they were
elaborated, and then clear spaces called vacuoles make their
appearance, which gradually coalesce till the whole internal space
seems one large vacuole and the protoplasm is pushed outwards
and forms a thin film round the walls. In these older cells, even
when slightly magnified, other bodies known as pltistids, usually of
a spherical or ellipsoidal shape, are seen floating in the protoplasm,
often in great numbers. They first appear around and near the
nucleus, are denser than the protoplasm in which they swim, and
in the interior cells of the plant and in roots are colourless, but in
the cells of the leaves are coloured green by a waxy substance
called chlorophyll, and in the petals of flowers are frequently red
or yellow.

But when the protoplasm has first been carefully stained with
haematoxylon, a dye prepared from logwood, or with some other
staining matter, of which there are several, and the cells are sub-
mitted to examination under the highest powers of the microscope,
protoplasm assumes a completely different aspect, and a decided
structure, but one about which different opinions have been, and
still are, held, presents itself to view. The thinner, more fluid,
portion of the protoplasm (Cytoplasm) exhibits then the appearance

6 Protoplasm :

of an open network of fine threads upon which numerous granules
are rather irregularly placed, the spaces between the meshes being
filled with a still more watery substance. Nucleus. — The nucleus,
on the other hand, while at rest, is occupied by what sometimes
appears as a much convoluted or ravelled thread, and at other
times as a very close network. On this thread or network numer-
ous granules are affixed, and as it does not stain deeply while the
granules are strongly dyed, the structure is easily made out. The
network is surrounded by a fine membrane which separates it from
the rest of the protoplasm, and the whole interior of the nucleus is
bathed in fluid.

Structure in Animals.

Animal cells and those of fungi and parasites differ from those
of ordinary vegetables in containing no plastids, and this is the
reason why they cannot feed on inorganic matter but have to
obtain their nutriment from substances originally elaborated by
chlorophyllous plants. On the other hand all, or at all events,
most animal cells contain a peculiar body called a centrosome, which
is not possessed by the cells of the higher plants, though found in a
few of the lower. The centrosome is a homogeneous body situated
near the nucleus, and is generally surrounded by a clear space
from which fine protoplasmic threads radiate on all sides. By
those who have made an exhaustive study of this body it is regard-
ed as a most important organ of the animal cell, and the centre of
forces which cause cell division.

Huxley's Views.

Professor Huxley, in his Article on Biology in The Encyclopedia
Britannica, wrote: "A mass of living protoplasm is simply a
"molecular machine of great complexity, the total results of the
"working of which, or its vital phenomena, depend on the one
"hand upon its construction, and on the other, upon the energy
"supplied to it ; and to speak of 'vitality' as anything but the
"name of a series of operations is as if one should talk of the
" 'horologity' of a watch." This dictum of the Professor has been
quoted and applauded again and again, but though he speaks of
the construction of the protoplasmic machine, he forgot for a
moment that no machine ever constructed itself, that they all re-
quired a designer and a constructor, and the ' horologity ' he speaks of

Its Structure tn Animals, and Grovoth. 7

is centred in the man who designs and makes a watch, and not in
the watch itself. We may speak of a plant, an animal, or a mass
of protoplasm as a machine if we please, just as one may style the
cells of plant leaves laboratories because in them chemical processes
are carried on, or as we may say that the leaves themselves are
the lungs of the plant because chiefly by them the plant is able to
breathe ; but this is figurative language.

And if we call a plant a machine, let us recognize how much
superior such a machine is to the most perfect one constructed by
man, for it supplies itself automatically with the means to produce
the energy necessary for its growth, development, and perfect
action, and it gives birth to other machines of the same kind as
itself which shall take its place when it is worn out and dead.
Engineers build wonderful and powerful locomotive and other
engines, but they have constantly to supply water to the boiler
and coal to the furnace or their machines would stop working.
Horologists construct watches and clocks, but to keep them going
they have to be wound up from time to time, and electricians
establish telegraphs, but their batteries have continually to be
renewed ; while these and all other man-made machines wear
themselves out without producing anything to take their place.
Growth.

Every botanist who has paid any attention to the physiology
of the plants he studies, knows that the carbon in the molecules
of the protoplasm is abstracted by composition with the oxygen
breathed in through the stomates of the leaves or the lenticels of
the stems, and that so necessary is this respiratory process to the
very existence of all tissues and cells in every part of the organism,
that even roots of plants such as mangroves growing in mud,
where the supply of oxygen is not equal to their demand, send up
erect branches into the air, where they form pneumathodes or air
openings, and that other plants such as our native Epilobium hir-
sutum, Lythrum salicaria, and Lycopus europ&us, in order to meet
the scarcity of air in wet soil, form at the base of their stems a
special white, spongy tissue for their adequate aeration. The
resulting compound of carbon and oxygen is breathed out through
the stomates, and thus the protoplasm loses substance and weight.
Other compounds, the products of metabolism, either of no obvious

8 Protoplasm :

use or absolutely injurious to the plant, as acids, gums and
alkaloids, are excreted in various ways, or, like raphides, are shut
up in special cells. To make up this loss of substance, the plant
is continually engaged in absorbing Carbon dioxide from the air,
and various necessary sulphates, phosphates, and chlorides of the
metals from the soil.

Intus-susception.

Professor Huxley says of this constant absorption of new
matter and throwing off of the old : "The addition of molecules
"to those which already existed takes place not at the surface of
"the living mass but by intus-susception between the existing
"molecules of the latter. If the process of disintegration and of
"reconstruction which characterize life balance one another, the
"size of the mass of living matter remains stationary, while if the
"reconstructive process of molecular intus-susception is the more
"rapid, the living body grows. But the increase of size which
"constitutes growth is the result of a process of molecular intus-
"susception, and therefore differs altogether from the process of
"growth by accretion which may be observed in crystals, and is
"effected purely by the internal addition of new matter — so that
"in the well known aphorism of Linnaeus the word grow applied
"to stones signifies a totally different process from what is called
"growth in plants and animals."

In contradiction to this Professor Schafer says : "Should it be
"contended that growth constitutes a test by which we may differ-
"entiate between life and non-life, between the animate and inani-
"mate creation, it must be replied that no contention can be more
"fallacious. Inorganic crystals grow and multiply and reproduce
"their like, given a supply of the requisite pabulum."

The passage I have quoted from Huxley was written in 1875,
and of course it might be supposed that between that date and
1912 discoveries had been made in the mode of growth of crystals.
If so, they must have been made very recently, for in the fifth
edition of Dr. Walker's Treatise on Physical Chemistry, published
as late as 1910, though he discusses crystals in several places, he
nowhere asserts that "crystals grow by intus-susception." True
he says : "It was for long supposed that no regular arrangement
"of particles could subsist in liquids, the particles of which have a

Intus-susception and Reproduction. g

"certain freedom not possessed by solids, but of late crystalline
'•''liquids have been discovered which possess properties hitherto
"only encountered in solid crystals [p. .63]. ... It occasionally
"happens that when two substances are melted together, the
"liquid when cooled does not deposit one of the substances only
"but both at once. This generally occurs when the two solids
"crystallize in the same torm. Such homogeneous solid mixtures
"are often called solid solutions [p. 72], . . . and are in a sense
"comparable with liquid solutions, and one crystalline substance
"may be said to be dissolved in the other." [p. 212.] This is the
nearest approach to what Professor Schafer asserts that is contained
in Dr. Walker's treatise, and its remoteness from any process of
vegetable or animal growth needs no pointing out. The other
part of his assertion, that crystals multiply and reproduce their like
is even further apart from organic multiplication and reproduction.
Reproduction.

There are three forms of reproduction in plants and in the lower
animals — viz. Sexual, Vegetable or Asexual, [and Parthenogenetic.

i. Sexual. — Sexual reproduction is the nearly universal, the
most perfect, and the true form of the process. In this form, the
individuals of a species produce in different organs two comple-
mentary reproductive atoms, one male and the other female. Or
one individual may produce only the male reproductive bodies, the
female being borne on distinct individuals of the species. These
two complementary bodies are designed to meet and fuse together,
which action gives rise to what is known as an oospore or ovum.
In these ova, which are minute microscopic nucleated pieces of
protoplasm, the individuals of a new generation commence their
existence. Some biologists believe that without sexual reproduc-
tion, the evolution of so many distinct and numerous species,
genera, and families of either plants or animals could not have
taken place. I don't know that this opinion can be accepted
in full, for alteration of external circumstances seems a more
potent cause of variation. But it is certainly true that when a
plant — I do not know about animals — has established a number of
varietal forms, any or all of them may be reproduced by the differ-
ent seeds in the fruit, so that a parent, if a sexually produced
individual, inherits and may distribute all the specific characters.

io Protoplasm:

2. Asexual. — In the Asexual or Vegetative mode of giving rise
to new individuals, a single cell by ordinary vegetative division
produces one or more plants which in every respect are absolutely
the same as the plant which gave them origin. I may illustrate
the matter by pointing to the strawberry plant and the creeping
buttercup, both of which send off 'runners' or aerial branches from
the base of their stems, that at certain nodes send down roots into
the soil and rosettes of leaves upwards. In the course of a short
time the runners perish and then a number of independent indi-
viduals surround their parent. In potato plants, a 'stolon' or
underground branch stem bears at its end a swollen portion or
tuber which in the following year will produce a new plant in all
respects the same as that which bore the tuber. In these and
many other instances asexual is totally different from and inferior
to sexual reproduction. When, for instance, potato tubers are
planted in spring, the individuals that grow up from them are, as
1 have just said, identical with the plants from which the tubers
were taken. On the other hand, if ripe potato seeds are sown,
the young plants may reproduce any or all of the varieties of the
potato that had been known, and may sometimes produce new
varieties which are in men's appreciation better or worse than the
old. Thus by asexual reproduction the individual only is repro-
duced, and by the sexual mode the species.

3. Parthenogenesis. — The Parthenogenetic form of reproduction
occurs in a considerable number of the species of lower animals,
but not, so far as I know, in any of the higher. It takes place in
bees, wasps, silk-worm moths, sea-urchins, and in many species
of other families. In plants it is known among the Cryptogamia,
in a species of Stonewort, and in several species of mosses. A few
cases also are known among Flowering plants, as in one of the
Cudweeds, and in the annual Dog's Mercury, In these cases the
female ovum, without fusion with the complementary male body,
proceeds to divide and develop into a new individual. What is its
cause and its nature are not yet by any means understood, and
many experiments have been made to throw light upon the matter.
Unfertilized ova of several sea-urchins have been variously treated.
In some of the experiments the ova were shaken to detach and
eject the nucleus ; in others enucleated portions of the ova wer*

Development of the Organic Body. i i

separated by cutting" ; and in a third class of trials, a diluted solu-
tion of a lithium or a magnesium salt was added to some sea-water,
in which the ova were placed for a time and then returned to their
usual medium. In most cases all these ova proceeded to develop,
even those that had been mutilated ; but, so far as I know, not in
any instance did development proceed further than the larval form,
whilst others stopped short of that.

Professor Schafer makes use of these experiments, which evi-
dently seem nothing- more than instances of an artificially-produced
parthenogenesis, to proclaim that the doctrine of "vitalism has
" not only had its foundations undermined, but most of the super-
structure has toppled over." As usual, however, in making his
comparisons he exaggerates matters on the materialistic side, for
none of the treated ova, as far as I can learn, ever reached maturity,
and even if they had, they would be nothing more than cases of
parthenogenesis.

Development of the Organic body.

As soon as the fusion between the two complementary repro-
ductive bodies has been completed, the resulting fertilized ovum
or egg, in all organisms alike, begins to develop. It surrounds
itself with a wall, probably of cellulose, which must have been
formed by some catalytic chemical process from the protoplasm.
We see, then, a simple nucleated cell which at once divides into
two halves by building a wall across its middle. These two cells
each divide again in the same way into four, and the four into eight,
and these again and again till a considerable tissue of cells has been
formed. The process in its early stages is essentially the same in
all organisms, whether animal or plant, but the arrangement of the
cells and their position in regard to each other are very various.
As each new division of cells is made, there arises a certain differ-
entiation among them which probably is caused by an alteration in
the character of their protoplasm. One thing is certain, to one set
of cells one function is assigned, and to others a different function.
In plants some cells are deputed to give rise to the root, others to
the stem, and others again to the leaves ; and each set of cells, with
a certain function to perform, occupies the exact place which the
organ produced must occupy in the developed body, in order that
it may perform its Work.

1 2 Protoplasm :

Cell Division.

The manner in which the division of cells is brought about and
the dividing-wall built is wonderful in the extreme. It is preceded
by the division of the nucleus, and also, in animal cells by that of
the centrosome. The whole complex process has been studied in
the cells of numerous plants and animals, and is found to take
place exactly in the same manner in all of them.

1. The nucleus first increases in size, the filmy wall surround-
ing it disappears, the ravelled thread opens its coils, and in animals
the centrosome divides in two, one of the halves migrating to the
opposite side of the developing nucleus.

2. Secondly, the nuclear thread splits up into a certain number
of equal pieces called chromosomes, the number of which varies
considerably in different species, but remains constant in the same
one. These pieces shorten themselves and grow thicker, and the
coloured granules attached to them are thus brought into more
equal distance from each other.

3. Thirdly, a number of fine threads suddenly make their ap-
pearance, which form a sort of spindle that in animal cells lies be-
tween the two centrosomes at the opposite sides of the nucleus.
The same kind of spindle is formed in plants, and though they
have no visible centrosomes, lies in the same direction as if such
were present.

4. Fourthly, the chromosomes move towards the equator or
broadest part of the spindle, each along one of the spindle threads,
and as they go all of them divide lengthwise, together with all the
coloured granules along their length, so that each half of the threads
of the chromosomes receives an equal number of half-granules.

5. In the fifth place, one half of each longitudinally-divided
chromosome, with its attached half-granules, separates from the
other, and two half-nuclei are formed consisting of the same number
of half-chromosomes. Each of these loops itself in the shape of
the letter V, and with their points turned towards the centrosomes,
the two sets proceed in opposite directions along the spindle
threads to the poles or narrow end of the spindle. There the
chromosomes of each half-nucleus unite again and form a continu-
ous thread which ravels itself up as in the original nucleus before
it prepared to divide. In this elaborate way two equal nuclei are

Cell Division. 13

formed from the original one, and by the manner in which the
chromosomes divide they consist of an equal number of coloured
granules.

6. And now the sixth and last phase of the complicated proce-
dure takes place. Along- the equator of the spindle, and thus mid-
way between the two new nuclei, minute particles of matter sud-
denly become visible between the spindle threads ; these increase
in size and in number, and build across the middle of the dividing
cell a wall which always remains pierced with microscopically
minute holes, through which protoplasmic threads keep up a means
of communication between the severed halves, which are now com-
plete and whole cells, sharing the nucleus and the protoplasm of
the mother cell equally between them. The threads of protoplasm
running through the wall may be regarded as rudimentary nerves,
just as the conducting tissue in the stem of a moss is rudimentary
xylem and phloem. From many examinations in a number of
plants it is now certainly known that by these minute threads each
cell of a plant is in direct or indirect communication with all the
rest, and we are thus in a position to understand movements
formerly considered mysterious, such as when one pinnule of a leaf
of the sensitive plant is touched the whole leaf should at once pro-
ceed to fold up and hang down on its petiole.

Professor Schafer would compare this extremely complicated
but thoroughly satisfactory mode of division, which results in the
two new nuclei being formed, each having an exact share of the
original nuclear thread and equal halves of each coloured granule
— he would compare it with the molecular dance of some particles
of carbon suspended in a solution of salt. He says: "Even so
" complex a process as the division of a cell nucleus by karyokinesis ,
" as a preliminary to the multiplication of the cell by division — a
" phenomenon which would prima facie have seemed and has com-
" monly been regarded as a distinctive manifestation of the life of
" the cell — can be imitated with solutions of a simple inorganic salt,
' ' such as chloride of sodium, containing a suspension of carbon par-
1 ' tides ; which arrange and rearrange themselves under the influence
"of the movements of the electrolytes in a manner indistinguishable
" from that adopted by the particles of chromatin in a dividing
"nucleus." But there is not even similarity between the two

i<4 Conclusion.

things, and they are abundantly distinguishable. The chromo-
somes divide longitudinally and so do the coloured granules, that
both half-nuclei may be exactly the same. The chromosomes
— which the Professor seems to mistake for the coloured granules
— do not dance about like the particles of carbon when butted
against by the electrolytes, but proceed in an orderly and prede-
termined path towards the place where, as the components of the
new nuclei, they must take up their position.

The Professor is rashly daring, for none but a rash man could
ever have thought of propounding a comparison so thoroughly
inept.

Conclusion.

I have now placed before you some account, inadequate enough,
of the origin, composition, structure, and activities of protoplasm,
and tried to show in what general manner it builds the bodies of
plants and animals. What then is protoplasm as we know it in
the world of the present day ? We may, I believe, confidently say
that it is a complex, materialistic and lifeless compound, formed and
maintained by that power we call Life, which constantly controls
and directs it ; and, making use of all the chemical affinities
and electric adaptabilities of its elements, brings about all
its activities, designs the structures it builds, and enables it by a
power of variation to provide against and ward off the physical
dangers which may threaten it. And what is Life? Its essential
nature no one knows ; we only recognize it by what it performs,
and by the purpose that underlies and guides all it actions, by
which it is abundantly distinguished from any natural force —
chemical, electrical, mechanical, or other — all of which .Life
dominates and compels to serve its ends.

JOSEPH A. MARTINDALE.

J. S. Joitleft, Printer, j Windertnere Road) Kendal.

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