e only
question in regard to their ability to make protoplasm thus resolved
itself into the question of whether protoplasm is really a chemical
compound.

We can easily understand how eager biologists became now in pursuit of
the goal which seemed almost within their reach; how interested they
were in any new discovery, and how eagerly they sought for lower and
simpler types of protoplasm since these would be a step nearer to the
earliest undifferentiated life substance. Indeed so eager was this
pursuit for pure undifferentiated protoplasm, that it led to one of
those unfounded discoveries which time showed to be purely imaginary.
When this reign of protoplasm was at its height and biologists were
seeking for even greater simplicity a most astounding discovery was
announced. The British exploring ship Challenger had returned from its
voyage of discovery and collection, and its various treasures were
turned over to the different scientists for study. The brilliant Prof.
Huxley, who had first formulated the mechanical theory of life, now
startled the biological world with the statement that these collections
had shown him that at the bottom of the deep sea, in certain parts of
the world, there exists a diffused mass of living _undifferentiated
protoplasm_. So simple and undifferentiated was it that it was not
divided into cells and contained no nucleii. It was, in short, exactly
the kind of primitive protoplasm which the evolutionist wanted to
complete his chain of living structures, and the biologist wanted to
serve as a foundation for his mechanical theory of life. If such a
diffused mass of undifferentiated protoplasm existed at the bottom of
the sea, one could hardly doubt that it was developed there by some
purely natural forces. The discovery was a startling one, for it seemed
that the actual starting point of life had been reached. Huxley named
his substance _Bathybias_, and this name became in a short time familiar
to every one who was thinking of the problems of life. But the discovery
was suspected from the first, because it was too closely in accord with
speculation, and it was soon disproved. Its discoverer soon after
courageously announced to the world that he had been entirely mistaken,
and that the Bathybias, so far from being undifferentiated protoplasm,
was not an organic product at all, but simply a mineral deposit in the
sea water made by purely artificial means. Bathybias stands therefore as
an instan