ABSTRACT Professor Huxley and Dr. Beale on Protoplasm. The eloquent lecture “On the Physical Basis of Life,” which Professor Huxley gave before a popular audience in Edinburgh last January, has been made the subject of a somewhat severe attack by Dr. Lionel Beale, in a communication read to the Microscopical Society of London, and published in its Journal for May, 1869. Dr. Beale seeks to show that Professor Huxley has misrepresented the usual meaning of the term protoplasm, or has given it a new and absurd signification in conformity with a preconceived physical theory of life. Meanwhile, there are persons who have been asking, what is protoplasm ? Even some of those who should know well enough already. Dr. Beale’s attack on Professor Huxley, therefore, complicates matters, since it lends some show of reason to the doubts and difficulties expressed by certain uninformed readers of the ‘Fortnightly Review.’ I wish here, as an independent student, to state, in opposition to the criticisms of Dr. Beale, that it did not appear to me, in reading the printed lecture of Professor Huxley, that he had used the term protoplasm in any other than its usual, normal, and legitimate signification, and I gather from that lecture that Professor Huxley’s definition of protoplasm would probably exclude and include exactly the same things which Dr. Beale’s would. Dr. Beale has criticised Professor Huxley’s broad and general statements—admirably adapted to the comprehension of a general audience—as though they contained a full confession of his faith quâ. cell structure and histology generally. This, I submit, with the greatest deference to Dr. Beale, is hardly fair; and as his communication to the Microscopical Society appears to misrepresent the views of the highest authority on biological science in this country, I venture, not forgetting the sincere regard which all microscopists must have for Dr. Beale, to reply to the criticisms. Probably, as far as those are concerned who have read the lecture and know Professor Huxley’s views and the exceeding improbability of his making the announcements attributed to him, these notes will be superfluous, but there are some to whom they may be useful.