The
argument is that life can only be regarded as a further property of
certain forms of matter. Oxygen and hydrogen, when they combine, result
in a new substance, quite unlike either of them in character, and
possessing _new_ and different properties. The way in which the
combination is effected is a mystery, yet we do not account for the new
and peculiar properties of water (so different from those of the
original gases) as arising from a principle of "aquosity," which we have
to invoke from another world. The answer is that the argument is from
analogy, and that there is not really the remotest analogy between the
two cases. It is true that, as far as we know, electricity is necessary
to force a combination of the requisite equivalents of oxygen and
hydrogen into water. But though we do not know why this is, or what
electricity is, we can repeat the process as often as we will. But mark
the difference; the water once existing is obviously only a new form of
matter, in the same category with the gases it came from: it neither
increases in bulk, nor takes in fresh elements to grow, and give birth
to new drops of water. But protoplasm has something quite different--for
there may be dead protoplasm and living protoplasm, both identical to
the eye and to every chemical test. In either condition, protoplasm, as
such, has _properties_ of the same nature (though not of the same kind)
as those of water, oxygen gas, or any other matter; it is colorless,
heavy, sticky, elastic, and so forth; but besides all that (without the
aid of electricity or any physical force we can apply) one has the power
of producing more protoplasm--gathering for itself, by virtue of its
inherent power, the materials for growth and reproduction.
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