The Story of the Living Machine / A Review of the Conclusions of Modern Biology in Regard / to the Mechanism Which Controls the Phenomena of Living / Activity

by H. W. Conn

If, as chemists and biologists then believe, protoplasm is a compound which stands at the head of the organic series, and if, as is the fact, chemists are each year succeeding in making higher and higher members of the series, it is an easy assumption that some day they will be able to make the highest member of the series. Further, it is a well-known fact that simple chemical compounds have simple physical properties, while the higher ones have more varied properties. Water has the property of being liquid at certain temperatures and solid at others, and of dividing into small particles (i.e., dissolving) certain bodies brought in contact with it. The higher compound albumen has, however, a great number of properties and possibilities of combination far beyond those of water. Now if the properties increase in complexity with the complexity of the compound, it is again an easy assumption that when we reach a compound as complex as protoplasm, it will have properties as complex as those of the simple life substance. Nor was this such a very wild hypothesis. After all, the fundamental life activities may all be traced to the simple oxidation of food, for this results in movement, assimilation, and growth, and the result of growth is reproduction. It was therefore only necessary for our biological chemists to suppose that their chemical compound protoplasm possessed the power of causing certain kinds of oxidation to take place, just as water itself induces a simpler kind of oxidation, and they would have a mechanical explanation of the life activities. It was certainly not a very absurd assumption to make, that this substance protoplasm could have this power, and from this the other vital activities are easily derived.

In other words, the formulation of the doctrine of protoplasm made it possible to assume that life is not a distinct force, but simply a name given to the properties possessed by that highly complex chemical compound protoplasm. Just as we might give the name aquacity to the properties possessed by water, so we have actually given the name vitality to the properties possessed by protoplasm. To be sure, vitality is more marvelous than aquacity, but so is protoplasm a more complex compound than water. This compound was a very unstable compound, just as is a mass of gunpowder, and hence it is highly irritable, also like gunpowder, and any disturbance of its condition produces motion, just as a spark will do in a mass of gunpowder. It is capable of inducing oxidation in foods, something as water induces oxidation in a bit of iron. The oxidation is, however, of a different kind, and results in the formation of different chemical combinations; but it is the basis of assimilation. Since now assimilation is the foundation of growth and reproduction, this mechanical theory of life thus succeeded in tracing to the simple properties of the chemical compound protoplasm, all the fundamental properties of life. Since further, as we have seen in our first chapter, the more complex properties of higher organisms are easily deduced from these simple ones by the application of the laws of mechanics, we have here in this mechanical theory of life the complete reduction of the body to a machine.

The Reign of Protoplasm.—This substance protoplasm became now naturally the centre of biological thought. The theory of protoplasm arose at about the same time that the doctrine of evolution began to be seriously discussed under the stimulus of Darwin, and naturally these two great conceptions developed side by side. Evolution was constantly teaching that natural forces are sufficient to account for many of the complex phenomena which had hitherto been regarded as insolvable; and what more natural than the same kind of thinking should be applied to the vital activities manifested by this substance protoplasm. While the study of plants and animals was showing scientists that natural forces would explain the origin of more complex types from simpler ones through the law of natural selection, here in this conception of protoplasm was a theory which promised to show how the simplest forms may have been derived from the non-living. For an explanation of the origin of life by natural means appeared now to be a simple matter.

It required now no violent stretch of the imagination to explain the origin of life something as follows: We know that the chemical elements have certain affinities for each other, and will unite with each other under proper conditions. We know that the methods of union and the resulting compounds vary with the conditions under which the union takes place. We know further that the elements carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen have most remarkable properties, and unite to form an almost endless series of remarkable bodies when brought into combination under different conditions. We know that by varying the conditions the chemist can force these elements to unite into a most extraordinary variety of compounds with an equal variety of properties. What more natural, then, than the assumption that under certain conditions these same elements would unite in such a way as to form this compound protoplasm; and then, if the ideas concerning protoplasm were correct, this body would show the properties of protoplasm, and therefore be alive. Certainly such a supposition was not absurd, and viewed in the light of the rapid advance in the manufacture of organic compounds could hardly be called improbable. Chemists beginning with simple bodies like CO₂ and H₂O were climbing the ladder, each round of which was represented by compounds of higher complexity. At the top was protoplasm, and each year saw our chemists nearer the top of the ladder, and thus approaching protoplasm as their final goal. They now began to predict that only a few more years would be required for chemists to discover the proper conditions, and thus make protoplasm. As late as 1880 the prediction was freely made that the next great discovery would be the manufacture of a bit of protoplasm by artificial means, and thus in the artificial production of life. The rapid advance in organic chemistry rendered this prediction each year more and more probable. The ability of chemists to manufacture chemical compounds appeared to be unlimited, and the 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 instance of a too precipitate advance in speculation, which led even such a brilliant man as Prof. Huxley into an unfortunate error of observation; for, beyond question, he would never have made such a mistake had he not been dominated by his speculative theories as to the nature of protoplasm.

But although Bathybias proved delusive, this did not materially affect the advance and development of the doctrine of protoplasm. Simple forms of protoplasm were found, although none quite so simple as the hypothetical Bathybias. The universal presence of protoplasm in the living parts of all animals and plants and its manifest activities completely demonstrated that it was the only living substance, and as the result of a few years of experiment and thought the biologist's conception of life crystallized into something like this: Living organisms are made of cells, but these cells are simply minute independent bits of protoplasm. They may contain a nucleus or they may not, but the essence of the cell is the protoplasm, this alone having the fundamental activities of life. These bits of living matter aggregate themselves together into groups to form colonies. Such colonies are animals or plants. The cells divide the work of the colony among themselves, each cell adopting a form best adapted for the special work it has to do. The animal or plant is thus simply an aggregate of cells, and its activities are the sum of the activities of its separate cells; just as the activities of a city are the sum of the activities of its individual inhabitants. The bit of protoplasm was the unit, and this was a chemical compound or a simple mixture of compounds to whose combined physical properties we have given the name vitality.

The Decline of the Reign of Protoplasm.—Hardly had this extreme chemical theory of life been clearly conceived before accumulating facts began to show that it is untenable and that it must at least be vastly modified before it can be received. The foundation of the chemical theory of life was the conception that protoplasm is a definite though complex chemical compound. But after a few years' study it appeared that such a conception of protoplasm was incorrect. It had long been suspected that protoplasm was more complex than was at first thought. It was not even at the outset found to be perfectly homogeneous, but was seen to contain minute granules, together with bodies of larger size. Although these bodies were seen they were regarded as accidental or secondary, and were not thought of as forming any serious objection to the conception of protoplasm as a definite chemical compound. But modern opticians improved their microscopes, and microscopists greatly improved their methods. With the new microscopes and new methods there began to appear, about twenty years ago, new revelations in regard to this protoplasm. Its lack of homogeneity became more evident, until there has finally been disclosed to us the significant fact that protoplasm is to be regarded as a substance not only of chemical but also of high mechanical complexity. The idea of this material as a simple homogeneous compound or as a mixture of such compounds is absolutely fallacious. Protoplasm is to-day known to be made up of parts harmoniously adapted to each other in such a way as to form an extraordinarily intricate machine; and the microscopist of to-day recognizes clearly that the activities of this material must be regarded as the result of the machinery which makes up protoplasm rather than as the simple result of its chemical composition. Protoplasm is a machine and not a chemical compound.

FIG. 23.—A cell as it appears to the modern
microscope. a, protoplasmic reticulum;
b, liquid in its meshes; c, nuclear membrane;
d, nuclear reticulum; e, chromatin
reticulum; f, nucleolus; g, centrosome;
h, centrosphere; i, vacuole;
j, inert bodies.