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158 28 [Notes for “Man’s Glassy Essence”] mid-May 1892 Houghton Library The problem is to elucidate the relation between the physical aspect of a substance and its psychical aspect. As first step toward this, let us frame a molecular theory of protoplasm . The physical properties of the vital slime must first be catalogued . It has two states. In the first, it is a solid. But when it is disturbed in certain ways, it becomes liquid. The liquidity starts at the point of disturbance and spreads. But the spreading is not uniform in all directions. If the disturbance is not continued, the flowing gradually ceases and the slime becomes solid again. All this sometimes appears to take place without any disturbance from without. When the slime is liquid, it flows under the action of gravity, and so may spread. Yet it generally has a tendency to draw itself up into a globular form in that state. This is more the case with some forms of protoplasm than with others; particularly, it is so with the contents of muscle-cells. When the slime thus draws itself up, it generally does work against an external force. The effect of this work appears to be the same in kind as the effect of its merely balancing the external force without doing work, and the same as the effect of continued or reiterated disturbance in nerve-cells where there is very little contraction. Namely, it produces a state of fatigue or obstinate retention of the solid condition. The slime is further capable of assimilating food and thus growing. This assimilation is greatly stimulated by activity, and indeed, it seems probable that it is only capable of true growth when it is in the liquid condition. The slime also wastes; and this also takes place in the liquid state chiefly. Furthermore, protoplasm takes habits. That is to say, the path which the spreading of the liquidity follows, though somewhat irregular, is more frequently than otherwise that which it has happened previously to have most frequently taken, especially on recent occasions and on occasions of great disturbance. In this growth, the characters of the slime are wonderfully preserved , not merely its characters as protoplasm, not merely its charac- 28. Notes for “Man’s Glassy Essence,” 1892 159 ters as nerve-protoplasm or muscle-protoplasm, not merely its characters as lion protoplasm or whale protoplasm, but even in those minute characters which distinguish one breed or individual from another. And this although the food assimilated, if it is ever protoplasm, which may be doubted, is not the kind of protoplasm that is formed; and certainly it is sometimes inorganic. Now let us seek to get some idea of the molecular conditions in this series of phenomena. We begin by remarking that chemistry affords positive reason for believing that a molecule of protoplasm contains thousands, perhaps many thousands of atoms. Now, certainly we cannot suppose all these atoms to be held together by as definitely intersaturating forces as those which bind the hydrogen and chlorine of chlorhydric acid, nor even as such as unite the atoms of compounds of the aromatic series. It is difficult to imagine that the abstraction of a few atoms out of a thousand should instantly break up the system of the molecule. We know that even in electrolysis atoms wander from molecule to molecule without the derangement of the residue. Moreover, if a molecule contains, say ten thousand atoms, these are doubtless clustered into submolecules of several orders before the grand molecule is built up. All these atoms and submolecules must be conceived as whirling round one another under the influence of their mutual attractions. In certain situations, they may repel one another; but not for long, or they would fly asunder. Even the molecules attract one another in the main, as the experiment of Joule and Thomson proves. They too therefore must whirl round one another in quasi-orbital motions, as long as the slime is solid. For in solids, there is no diffusion, and therefore no wandering of molecules. But the slime is just upon the point of liquefaction. The least disturbance , imparting only just a little energy to a molecule causes it to fly away from its neighbors and go wandering among others. Them it, in turn, deranges and makes them fly off, and soon great numbers of molecules are wandering about, though in highly curved paths, and this is the condition of a liquid...

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