In his latest work (“An Introduction to the Classification of Animals,”) published in 1869, Professor Huxley unhesitatingly adopts the “well founded doctrine, that life is the cause and not the consequence of organization.” In his celebrated article “On the Physical Basis of Life,” however, he maintains, that life is a property of protoplasm, and that protoplasm owes its properties to the nature and disposition of its molecules. Hence he terms it “the matter of life,” and believes that all the physical properties of organized beings are due to the physical properties of protoplasm. So far we might, perhaps, follow him, but he does not stop here. He proceeds to bridge over that chasm which Professor Tyndall has declared to be “intellectually impassable,” and, by means which he states to be logical, arrives at the conclusion, that our “thoughts are the expression of molecular changes in that matter of life which is the source of our other vital phenomena.” Not having been able to find any clue in Professor Huxley’s writings, to the steps by which he passes from those vital phenomena, which consist only, in their last analysis, of movements of particles of matter, to those other phenomena which we term thought, sensation, or consciousness; but, knowing that so positive an expression of opinion from him will have great weight with many persons, I shall endeavour to show, with as much brevity as is compatible with clearness, that this theory is not only incapable of proof, but is also, as it appears to me, inconsistent with accurate conceptions of molecular physics. To do this, and in order further to develop my views, I shall have to give a brief sketch of the most recent speculations and discoveries, as to the ultimate nature and constitution of matter.
The Nature of Matter.
It has been long seen by the best thinkers on the subject, that atoms,—considered as minute solid bodies from which emanate the attractive and