carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen,
sulphur, and phosphorus, and it can also tell the percentage of each
element, but it cannot give more than a formula that will express it as
a whole, giving no information as to the nature of the numerous
albuminoid substances which compose it. Edward Cope, in his article on
Comparative Anatomy,[5] gives the formula for protoplasm (as a whole),
C{24}H{17}N{3}O{8} + S and P, in small quantities under some circumstances.
It is therefore, he says, a nitryl of cellulose: C{24}H{20}O{2} + 3NH{3}.
According to Mulder the composition of albumen, one of the class of
protein substances to which protoplasm belongs, is 10(C{40}H{31}N{5}O{12})
+ S{2}P. Protoplasm is identical in both the animal and vegetable kingdom;
it behaves the same from whatever source it may be derived towards
several re-agents, as also electricity. Is it possible, then, that the
protoplasm which produces the mould is exactly the same composition as
that which produces the human child? The answer is YES, so far as the
elements are concerned, but the proportions of carbon, hydrogen, etc.,
must enter into an infinite number of diverse stratifications and
combination in the production of the various forms of life. Professor
Frankland, speaking of protein, for instance, says it is capable of
existing under probably at least a thousand isomeric forms. Protoplasm
may be distinguished under the microscope from other members of the
class to which it belongs, on account of the faculty it possesses of
combining with certain coloring matters, as carmine and aniline; it is
colored dark-red or yellowish-brown by iodine and nitric acid, and it is
coagulated by alcohol and mineral acids as well as by heat. It possesses
the quality of absorbing water in various quantities, which renders it
sometimes extremely soft and nearly liquid, and sometimes hard and firm
like leather. Its prominent physical properties are excitability and
contractility, which Kuehne and others have especially investigated. The
motion of protoplasm in plants was first made known by Bonaventure Corti
a century ago in the Charoe plants; but this important fact was
forgotten, and it had to be discovered by Treviranus in 1807. The
regular motion of the protoplasm, forming a perfect current, may be seen
in the hairs of the nettle, and weighty evidence exists that similar
currents occur in all young vegetable cells. "If such be the case," says
Huxley, "the wonderful noonday s