The Boise citizen. (Boise, Idaho) 1906-1910, 1907-04-12
MYSTERY OF LIFE
Marvellous PROGRESS OF SGl6nC6 in
Problem OF the hg6S


tice in the April number of The Worlds Work.
progress of scientists pushing back the veil the problem
the centuries We quote in part follows:
There stranger paradox of than this That
edge tends to begin with things far off, end with the under
Standing of things familiar The study of the
the oldest of the sciences the study
Youngest There undiscovered
high of chared peaks Alaska Anacca and
Asia The planet Mars has been mapped o the poles
Helm discovered in the years before it was
found the earth; coronm still known only there We
have been sucking with every breath argon ypo and
the newfound with whose chemistry
realm Radoacvty be practically universal,
while the successive transformations of the wizard metal end in
lead Gravaon is the single natural force that remains
planned What wonder then that life-the life aniates
grass the field the life that without interruption
nfrom parent offspring since the beginning Of geologic history
the of all things naueis the thing of which
science is only beginning to approach
ALL LIFE IS PROTOPLASM
One fact, nevertheless know absolutely All life we
Enow this EARTH appears only in connection with single def
substance waey jelly relative chemically of
albumn the only living thing in this world Jefsh, oak
animals and far they alive ALL built
Of this universal fest The differences among living beings
are largely in the parts that alive
For cuousy enough the higher up the scale of life any
smaller general is the proportion of living sub
body The lowest of all hardly than
bits of naked epue proopasm and almost nothing else The
highest plants such the hardwood trees have only thin living
and the bark and small growing spots
roops and in the leaves twgs and buds The dead
wood The higher wambooded animals of
skim bones hair nails tendon only small portions of which are
alive Even the blood is alive though there swimming
about living the white copuscles Even the
nerves muscles living bit enclosed in nonving sheath
The living portion of egg is but part of the yol
Now concerning the chemistry of this strange festuf science
knows good DEAL but by all Protopam contains moth
ing that nothing in fact but few
substances This much certain On the
hand estu enormously complex substance by Tar the
most complex known chemistry We know
cy well Of do yet know just how its
oxygen carbon hydrogen and the together Thus far
therefore esu has been produced artihcialhough the
synthetic chemistry is continually getting nearer and
nsarer final achievement Time when knew mol
sugar than know about protopasm Today we know
substantially all be known about and can make
out of sawdus old
THE COMPLEXITY OF THE LIFECELL
There is another equally hard and fast and equally mat
ter of direct living not in general single
masses of potoplasm but aggregates of smaller particles The
house of life is built Of solid but of separate bricks
There are hundreds these protopamc bricks cells IN SIN
gle eye-ash thousands flake Of skim On the other
hand contrary general impression these cells often OF
considerable size single one comprises the entire yok of
trch egg single fbres extend from spine to foono small
distance in elephant and giraffe.
Each of these protopasmc bricks has internal
structure complicated beyond belief The microscope reveals
many still smaller structures within the cells themselves Dut ue
thousandh part of diameter single cell may
have the figure of rooted apng of spreading grape vne or OF
an ancient All these minute parts moreover differ chca
from one another From of them definite and characteristic
substances extracted while to comphcae the matter
further the tissues different creatures (o IN the
same creature different condons) are known to be chem
icaly unlike
One fact then is sure: The only life that know anything
about has adente physical basis basis which alike in its outer
physical structure in its inner chemical nature is hardly less
complex than the life which it embodies
Such outline the basis of fact which at the present