copper crystallizes in a
geometrical form, a cube--bismuth and antimony in a hexagonal, iodine
and sulphur in a rhombic form--so we find among radiolaria, and among
other protista and lower forms, that they "may be traced to a
mathematical, fundamental form, and whose form in its whole, as well as
in its parts, is bounded by definite geometrically determinable planes
and angles." Now, as to the forces of the two different groups of
bodies. Surely the constructive force of a crystal is due to the
chemical composition, and to its material constitution. As the shape of
the crystal and its size are influenced by surrounding circumstances,
there is, therefore, an external constructive force at work. The only
difference between the growth of an organism and that of a crystal is,
that in the former case, in consequence of its semi-fluid state of
aggregation, the newly added particles penetrate into the interior of
the organism (inter-susception), whereas inorganic substances receive
homogeneous matter from without, only by opposition or an addition of
new particles to the surface. "If we, then, designate the growth and the
formation of organisms as a process of life, we may with equal reason
apply the same term with the developing crystal." It is for these and
other reasons, demonstrating as they do the "unity of organic and
inorganic nature," the essential agreement of inorganic and organic
bodies in matter, form, and force, which led Tyndall[14] to say:
"Abandoning all disguise, the confession that I feel bound to make
before you is, that I prolong the vision backward across the boundary of
experimental evidence, and discern in that matter which we in our
ignorance, and notwithstanding our professed reverence for its Creator,
have hitherto covered with opprobrium, the promise and potency of every
form and quality of life."

Returning now to our protoplasm, let us ask the question: Where did it
come from? or, How did it come into existence? Though chemical synthesis
has built up a number of organic substances which have been deemed the
product of vitality, yet, up to the present day, the fact stands out
before us that no one has ever built up one particle of living matter,
however minute, from lifeless elements.

The protoplasm of to-day is simply a continuation of the protoplasm of
other ages, handed down to us through periods of undefinable and
indeterminable time.

The question of where protoplasm came from--how it aro