CBSE Class 9 Answered

Protoplasm assumed its living properties without any intervening vitalist principle.

Huxley emphasised that all protoplasm was composed of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen, which combined into water, carbon dioxide and nitrogen compounds, all 3 of which are necessary to life. These new compounds, like the elementary bodies of which they are composed, are lifeless. But when they are brought together, under certain conditions, they give rise t6o the still complex body, protoplasm and this protoplasm exhibits the phenomenon of life.