NATURAL HISTORY.

Otago Witness, Issue 1892, 15 May 1890, Page 36

NATURAL HISTORY.

By NESTOR NOTABILIS.

INTEODUCTOEY.

Under the generic term " Natural History " is now included quite a round of the natural sciences. It is not my intention to take these in detail ; the task would be too long, to say nothing of my inability to deal with it in an interesting and satisfactory manner. I shall therefore confine myself to that portion of the subject dealing with the animal life of the globe, thus retaining the older meaning of the term. In all of the older books treating on natural history the classification began with man, and descended to the lowest forms, The newer books have reversed that order, and work from the humblest forms upward, ending with man. This is the more natural method of classification, as by studying the lowest forms first we learn much relating to the structure of the higher animals.

The study of zoology, as that branch of natural history dealing with animals is called, is peculiarly fascinating to those who devote even a little attention to it, for there can be nothing more wonderful than the life of the globe. All of the works of t*he Creator are wonderful, but neither

CIRCLING WOBLDS NOB GLOWING SUNS possess so much of mystery nor declare so eloquently the attributes of their Author as that aggregation of phenomena which we call Life. There is no more profound study that could engage the loftiest intellect than the study of the phenomena of life, and it is inconceivable that any biologist worthy of the name could be an infidel or atheist. Who that has viewed "the trembling palpitating jelly speck, endowed with the mystery of life, in the field of a good microscope, but has felt overawed in the presence of a power beyond the grasp of his intellect to conceive? or who that has traced out the mysterious connection of brain, and nerve, and hand, and eye, and ear, but has felt that he himself was half divine.

Approached with due reverence the study of the mystery of life, in as far as we are enabled to appreciate the physical expression of it, is elevating to the mind and expanding to the intellect ; for hore we stand face to face with the great mystery of mysteries, to find out which sages in all the ages have racked their brains in vain. We know more of what Huxley terms the physical basis of life, and we are better acquainted with its physical expression than were the ancients, but we are just as far from solving the mystery itself as they were. I will not therefore attempt to define life, although some of the masters have thought it desirable to do so. In his " Principles of Biology " Mr Herbert Spencer defines life as •'the continuous adjustment of internal re* lations to external relations." Mr Hunry Drummond elaborates this definition as follows :—": — " The essential characteristic of a living organism is that it is in vital oonneotion with its general surroundings. A human being, for instance, is in direot contact with the earth and air, with all surrounding things, with the warmth of the sun, with the music of the birds, with the countless influences and activities of Nature and o£ his fellow men. In biological language he is thus said to be in ' correspondence with his environment.' He is, that is to say, in active and vital connection with them, influencing them possibly, but, especially being influenced by them. Now it is in virtue of this correspondence that he is entitled to be called alive. So long as he is in correspondence with any given point of his environment he lives. To keep up this correspondence is to keep up life. If his environment changes he must instantly adjust himself to the change. And he continues living only as long as he succeeds in adjusting himself to the 'simultaneous aud successive changes in his environment ' as these qccvir." Although science' is under a very

great obligation to Mr Herbert Spencer for his masterly definition of • life, as far as the man of science is enabled to gauge the mystery, still the definition has little meaning, and has over and again been called in question. We must therefore rest content to leave the great mystery still unsolved, and still as incapable of solution as ever it was. The utmost that we can do iB attempt to trace its outward expression, and in doing so we come to a study of the life of the globe — the organic structures, both plant and animal ; all else is inanimate, inert, and without the profound mystery of life. This we find, however, at the very outset : that there is an intimate connection between organisation and life. The inorganic matter of . the earth possesses no inherent tendency to change ; the same rock masses and mountain peaks defy the storms for centuries with aspect unchanged, save for the slow attritioriv of elements in strife, but not so the organised forms. These possess an inherent tendency to change— "the continuous adjustment of internal relations to external relations." Although organised bodies display this tendency to change, and are therefore said to live, organisation and life are not inseparable. A dead dog may be just as highly organised immediately after death as it was immediately before, and some of the lowest forms of life can hardly be said to be organised. The one. thing most intimately connected with life, and practically inseparable from it, is the substance named by Huxley

THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF LIFE.

That substance has been called protoplasm, or bioplasm. This " first fluid," or " life fluid," is said to bear the same relation to life that a conductor does to the electric enrrent. Dr Henry Alleyne Nicholson says : "It is the sole medium through which life can be brought into relation with the external world. There is, however, as yet, no reason to believe that protoplasmic matter holds any other or higher relation to life, or that vital phenomena are in any way an inherent property of the matter by which alone they are capable of being manifested." Although protoplasm is capable of formingthe most complex structures, it does not in itself manifest anything which can be looked upon as organisation. It is capable of almost indefinite change, or, more correctly, it enters into the structure of the most diverse organisations, and the only constant that can be approximately stated is its^ chemical composition. It consist* essentially of the four primary elements — carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogenunited into a proximate compound to which Mulder applied the name of " proteine.' This is very nearly identical -with albumen, or white of egg. Experiments have demonstrated that protoplasm can be made to contract by electricity, and to coagulate with heat. Here, than, we have a slimy, albuminous substance— protoplasm— compounded of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, in certain proximate proportions, in and through which the phenomena of life are manifested; but life, does not here take its origin. We are able- to provide a conductor for the electric current, and thereby capable of making it manifest itself, but just what that same current is, whose energy we can subordinate to our will, we cannot tell ; so in a somewhat analogous manner we can trace the physical expression of life as it weaves the woof of life into the warp of protoplasm, but what that same life is we cannot so much as conceive. So far, and no farther, have we been able to push our investigations ; so far, and no farther has light been shed along our path. Beyond there is a close veil of impenetrable darkness drawn, through and behind which human eyes can never hope to peer.

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