Anadarko daily democrat. [volume] (Anadarko, Oklahoma) 1901-190?, 1902-03-03
WILL WE MAKE HE?
THE NEW CENTURY MAY TT
VEAL THIS MARVEL.
rryiag Into tho Arcn-socret q; Dame
Natures Laboratory a Physioin.ist
Who Believes that the rrob EN- Whi
Some Dny 10 So.vsJ.

Some pay rc So.vsd.
The famous Professor IIaeckcl says
that man viii some day learn how to
mako lifo-that he will know how TO
produce \ living substance by artificial
processes" Perhaps tho new century
may hold In reserve this greatest iAar-
vel. which will enable the phy5lolog-
i:al chemist to assume the role OF a
creator. 1t may be only in 4 small
way. but IL will be wonderful none
the less After all. the problem Is
simply to create bit Of pr0topilsm
which is the basis of all life the clay
of the potter-the Substance, in short.
out Of which all animals and plants
are built up. And surely that ought
not to be so very difficult considering
what very ordinary stuff protoplGsm
is. Take spoonful OF the white OF an
egg, and you have it. practically
White of egg in fact is nearly pure
protoplasm. The composition of
protoplasm being absolutely known.
the chemist has no great trouble in
Een. hydro gen, nitrogen and carbon
are put together, and there you are,
Artificial protoplasm has been made
of albuminous substances and oils, and
the product has actually had a move
ment of its own Stimulating life; but
the movement was duo merely to
chemical causes Viewed under the
microscope, the stuff had exactly tho
same apparent structure as proto-
plasm. but there was no life in it, and
nc reproductive principle. The differ
ence between a thing living and n
thing dead is not matter of struc-
turo or chemical compOsitJn-the two
may be exactly the same in both re-
! spectj-but in the ability which the
| living thing has to renew its own cells
and propagate fresh ones. Blood
taken out of the veins of a living ami
NAL is the same as the blood that re-
mains in the veins. but the latter is
continually developing new corpuseles
lis alive. In other WORTHWHILE the
| former does nothing of the kind. Why
! is IT so? In the answer to that ques-
tion lies the arch-secret OF Dame Ma
ture's laboratory. 1t has never hecn
plausibly guessed at as yet, but there
is no good reason for taking it for
granted that it will never be found
out Prof Haeckel calls attention to
the fact that in trying to create life
man is only making an effort to ac-
complish what isthe plants in any
body's garden are: doing all the time,
They take so many parts of carbon,
hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen and
convert them into protoplasms, the
living substance. Science can com
bine these elements just as nature
does. the proportions being exactly
known, but not yet so as to produce
| life. But | believe firmly" says the
great psychologist, that the problem
will some day be solved. and the arti-
fetal production of life become an ac-
complished fact" If drop OF blood
be drawn by pricking ones finger and
| viewed Under a high microscopic DOW
er there will he seen, among numer-
GUS little disc-shaped bodies which
float in it and give it its red color 4
comparatively smaller number of
somewhat larger colorless bodies of
irregular shape. If the drop be kept
at the temperature of living blood
these colorless corpuscles will be seen
to exhibit marvellous activity, chang
ing their forms with great rapidity.
drawing in and thrusting out prolon-
cations of their substance, and creep
ing about as II they were Independent
organisms. Each is tiny mass OF
| protoplasm and has a nucleus of it's
own. 1t is a structural unit OF the
human being taking shape as an ag-
gregation of such corpuscles 1t is the
same way with all other animals.
though they are built up on different
structural forms, and some like the
amoeba, are so low down in the scale
of creation as to consist of but one
such cell. A plant is able to take
carbolic acid, water, and nitrogenous
salts, and convert them into proto-
plasm. That is the way in which
vegetable organisms grow. An animal
cannot do this. and so would starve
in the presence of any quantity of such
Jnw als.-Philadelphia Times.