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PROTOPLASM ,

OR,

Life, Force, and Matter.

ARISTOPH. Aves, 686.

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3

PROTOPLASM ;

OR,

LIFE, FORCE, AND MATTER.

BY

LIONEL S. BEALE, M.B., F.R.S.,

Ff/lmv of the Rnynl CnV.e^e nf Phyfldans : Fhvjiclan to King's College Hofpital.

WITH

NUMEROUS COLOURED DRAWINGS, EXECUTED ON WOOD, AND COPIED
FROM THE OBJECTS THEMSELVES.

LONDON:
J. CHURCHILL & SONS, NEW BURLINGTON STREET.

1870.

{All Rights reserved. ]

*#* The degree of amplifying power used is stated at
the foot of each figure in diameters, or linear measure.
x 500, means that the representation is 500 times longer
or wider, measured in one direction only, than the object
itself. If the object was i inch in length, the drawing
would extend over 500 inches, or would be 41 feet 8 inches
long.

The diameter of any object can be ascertained by com-
parison with the scales at the foot of each plate.

GERMINAL OR LIVING MAlTER AND FORMED MATERIAL OF COMMON

MILDEW.

In tliis drawing the germinal or living matter of mildew during growth is represented. The figures

have been copied from specimens -well stained by immersion in carmine fluid, a. spoi-es protected

by a thick layer of formed material. 6, smallest particles of germinal or living matter within ; any

one of these minute particles might grow, e, a spore bursting ; germinal matter escaping, d, a spore

enlarged by growth, e, a spore sprouting, f, an old spore, the formed material of which has been

much thickened by the formation of new layers within. The remaining figures show the growth of

the long filaments (mycelium) and the fructification of the fungus. It will be noticed that in all

changes the germinal matter only takes part. The formed material is perfectly passive

does not GROW. Magnified 17CO diameters.

- h of an inch i

.1 x T

PHYSICAL LIFE AND ITS

BASIS.

HE opinion that life is a form or mode of energy
or motion has for many years past been gaining
an increased number of advocates, and now ap-
pears to be very generally entertained and taught by
scientific men. The idea that life is a power, force, or
property of a special and peculiar kind, temporarily influ-
encing matter and its ordinary forces, but entirely different
from, and in no way correlated with these, has been ridi-
culed, and is often spoken of as if it were too absurd to
require refutation. And yet it is doubtful if any one who
has carefully studied the matter is fully satisfied as to the
accuracy of the facts, and the cogency of the arguments
advanced in favour of the physical doctrine of life. Nay,
do not very positive affirmations, if unsupported by well-
demonstrated facts, suggest to the reader a suspicion
whether after all, the writer himself is, thoroughly con-
vinced of the truth of the doctrine to which he has
committed himself, and which he has determined to advo-
cate with all the force of his authority, and to the very
utmost of his power ?

It may be that facts recently discovered strongly support

B

PROTOPLASM.

this now popular notion : it may be that the tendency of
modern research is, as has been said, indubitably and
strongly in this direction, — but some of us cannot feel satis-
fied that this is really so. Surely it is not too much to ask
that the exact way should be pointed out in which new
facts afford support to the doctrine, and that we should be
furnished with something more definite to guide our reason
than what is called the " tendency''' of investigation, of
thought, or opinion ; for this " tendency," when carefully
analyzed, will sometimes be found to amount only to this,
that certain influential persons have determined that a par-
ticular opinion shall be widely taught, or a particular theory
agreed upon shall be expounded and diffused as widely and
as quickly as possible.

Disclaiming authority of every kind, the adherents of
the new school of opinion profess to influence others, and to
be influenced themselves, by reason alone. But by urging
" the tendency of investigation" and "the spirit of modern
thought" in favour of doctrines they cannot support by evi-
dence, they appeal to the shadow of an authority which they
affect to despise. Every student has undoubted right to
require that scientific doctrines, which he is asked and
expected to accept as true, should be supported by facts
rather than by the authority of tendencies and prophecies.
In favour of regarding living beings as mere machines built
by force alone, maintained and preserved by force, and even
created by force, it is true, very positive statements have
been made ; but these have been, for the most part, sup-
ported by arguments more ingenious than conclusive. I for
one am ready to accept these views, no matter what change

OF DEAD AND LIVING.

in opinions, beliefs, or hopes that acceptance may involve,
provided only they are shown to rest upon facts of observa-
tion and experiment But should mere authority alone
induce any conscientious, thoughtful man, who has devoted
himself to the study of nature, to believe and confess that
a living, moving, growing thing is but a force-created, force-
impelled machine? When we watch the lowest forms of
living matter under high magnifying powers, do we learn
anything to justify us in accepting such a view ? When we
ask our confident teachers of the new philosophy to assist
us, we get dogmatic assertions, but nothing by way of
explanation. Grand words are freely used, but the terms
employed are not defined. It is, however, true enough,
that men eminent among philosophers, as well as some
of the most distinguished living physicists, chemists, and
naturalists, have accepted this physical theory of life. They
have taught that life is but a mode of ordinary force, and
that the living thing differs from the non-living thing, not in
quality, or essence, or kind, but merely in degree ; and yet
they cannot satisfactorily explain the difference between a
living thing and the same thing dead. They would perhaps
tell us that living and dead are only relative terms ; that
there is no absolute difference between the dead and living
states ; and that the thing which we call dead, is, after all,
only a few degrees less actively living than the thing we say
is alive. But is this sort of reasoning convincing, seeing
that although matter in the living state may suddenly pass
into the dead state, this same matter can never pass back
again into the living condition ? Those who advocate this
doctrine do not believe in the actual annihilation of force,

B 2

PROTOPLASM.

when a living thing suddenly passes from the living into
the dead state ; but they do not demonstrate the new form
or mode which the departing life-energy assumes, or explain
to us what in their opinion becomes of it. If the dead
thing only differs from the living thing by a few degrees of
heat or units of force, why can we not, by supplying more
heat or force, prevent dissolution, or cause the actions to
go on again after they have once stopped ?

In fact this view has been supported by assertions
instead of by facts, and of the arguments hitherto advanced
in its favour by its most powerful advocates, all are incon-
clusive, and some quite unjustifiable. He who chooses may
accept upon faith as an article of belief the dogma that all
the actions of living beings are due to ordinary forces only ;
but it is absurd to put forward such a conclusion as if it
had been proved, or as if it were in the existing state of
knowledge capable of proof. So long as the advocates of
the physical doctrine of life contented themselves with
ridiculing "vitality" as a fiction and a myth, because it could
not be made evident to the senses, measured or weighed,
or proved scientifically to exist, their position was not easily
assailed ; but now when they assert dogmatically that vital
force is only a form or mode of ordinary motion, they are
bound to show that the assertion rests upon evidence, or it
will be regarded by thoughtful men as one of a large num-
ber of fanciful hypotheses, advocated only by those who
desire to swell the ranks of the teachers and expounders
of dogmatic science, which, although pretentious and autho-
ritative, must ever be intolerant and unprogressive.

LIFE OF A MAGNET. 5

PROFESSOR OWEN'S NEW VIEWS.

PROFESSOR OWEN has lately avowed his belief in
the doctrine that the so-called vital forces are really
ordinary physical forces. Unlike many advocates, however,
he admits that " on one or two points " proof is wanting.
But Owen goes much farther than the most advanced micro-
scopical observers and scientific investigators. He main-
tains that the formation of living beings out of inanimate
matter, by the conversion of physical and chemical into
vital modes of force, is going on daily and hourly ! The
evidence he has adduced in favour of this strange view, it
need scarcely be said, is scanty, uncertain, and uncon-
vincing ; while a mass of facts and arguments which have
been adduced in favour of the opposite conclusion, that
every particle of living matter comes from a pre-existing particle,
has been unconsciously neglected or purposely ignored.

It is very significant that so great a master is unable to
suggest a better instance of the analogy which he affirms
exists between physical and vital actions than is afforded
by magnetism. He says that there is nothing peculiar to
living things in their power of selecting certain constituents,
because a magnet selects also. Let the reader consider
how different is the process called selection in these two
cases. A magnet, says Owen, attracts towards it only
certain kinds (a certain kind ?) of matter. Is there, then,
no difference between selection and attraction? Nor, he
further observes, is death characteristic of things living

PROTOPLASM,

only; for if the steel be unmagnetized, is it not "dead?"
Devitalize the sarcode (living amoeba), unmagnetize the
steel, and both cease to manifest their respective vital or
magnetic phenomena. In that respect both are " defunct."
" Only," remarks the same authority, " the steel resists
much longer the surrounding decomposing agencies;" and
I would add, but this Owen would regard as a matter of
the utmost indifference, you can unmagnetize and remag-
netize the magnet as often as you like, but you can only
kill the amoeba once, and you can never revitalize it.

In answer to my objections to some of his statements,
Professor Owen observes that " there are organisms (Vibrio
Rotifer, Macrobiotus, &c.) which we can devitalize and
revitalize — devive and revive — many times."* That such
organisms can be revived, all will admit, but probably Pro-
fessor Owen will be alone in not recognizing any distinction
between the words revitalizing and reviving. The animal-
cule that can be revived has never been dead, but that
which is not dead cannot be revitalized. The distinc-
tion between life and death must not be ignored. The
half-drowned man that can be revived has never been
dead.

How can there be any analogy whatever between the
half desiccated quiescent animalcule and a completely de-
siccated dead animalcule, or a man dead from drowning?

' <-»

The one lives, and the others are dead. The difference
between the living state and the dead state is absolute, for
that which has once lost its life can never regain it.

* "The Monthly Microscopical Journal, " No. V, May i, 1869,
p. 294.

RE VIVED AND RE VITALIZED.

If Owen regards the (apparently) dried animalcule as
being, " as completely lifeless as is the drowned man whose
breath and heat have gone, and whose blood has ceased to
circulate," he will not find many to agree with him; for
will not a drop of water resuscitate or revive the one, but
who shall revitalize the other ?

8 PROTOPLASM.

MR. GROVE ON EXPERIMENTAL ORGANISM.

MR. GROVE has recently* affirmed that "in a voltaic
battery and its effects" we have "the nearest ap-
proach man has made to experimental organism :" but surely
it should be shown in what particulars a voltaic battery
resembles an organism. All organisms come from pre-
existing organisms, and all their tissues and organs are formed
from or by a little clear, transparent, structureless, moving
matter which came from matter like itself, but may increase
by appropriating to itself matter having none of its properties
or powers. Now, voltaic batteries do not grow or multiply,
nor do they evolve themselves out of structureless material,
nor, if you give them ever so much pabulum in the shape of
the constituents of which they are made, do they appro-
priate this. Where too is the chemist who gives what is
selected? What then does Mr. Grove mean by asserting
that a voltaic battery is the nearest approach man has made
to experimental organism ? Has man yet made the slightest
approach to experimental organism ? If any apparatus we
could contrive developed all possible modes of force —
motion, heat, light, electricity, magnetism, chemical action,
and any number of others yet to be discovered — that
apparatus would still present no approach whatever to any
organism known. Of course such a thing might he called
an organism, just as a watch, or water, or a gas, or an
elementary substance may be called a creature, or a worm
a machine ; but everything that lives — every so-called living

* British Medical Journal, May 29, 1869, p. 486.

EXPERIMENTAL ORGANISM.

machine — grows of itself, builds itself up, and multiplies,
while every non-living machine is made, does not grow, and
does not produce machines like itself. Mr. Grove further says
that in the human body we have chemical action, electricity,
magnetism, heat, light, motion, and possibly other forces
" contributing in the most complex manner to sustain that
result of combined action which we call life." Here it
seems to be affirmed that forces sustain the result of their
own combined action, but surely this is only asserting that
these forces sustain themselves. Heat, light, electricity, etc.,
sustain the result of the combined action of heat, light,
electricity. It is moreover said that what we call life is the
result of the combined action of motion, heat, light, elec-
tricity, etc., which are but different forms or modes of one
force. But as everybody knows we may have any and all
modes of force without life. Life therefore involves some-
thing besides force, or is something different from it.

I0 PROTOPLASM.

PROFESSOR HUXLEY'S PHYSICAL BASIS OF LIFE.

IN order to convince people that the actions of living
beings are not due to any mysterious vitality or vital
force or power, but are in fact physical and chemical in their
nature, Prof. Huxley gives to matter which is alive, to matter
which is dead, and to matter which is completely changed
by roasting or boiling, the very same name. The matter of
sheep and mutton and man and lobster and egg is the same,
and according to Huxley, one may be transubstantiated into
the other. But how ? By " subtle influences," and " under
sundry circumstances," answers this authority. And all
these things alive, or dead, or roasted, he tells us are made
of protoplasm, and this protoplasm is the physical basis of
life, or the basis of physical life* But can the discoverer of
" subtle influences" afford to sneer at the fiction of vitality?
By calling things which differ from one another in many
qualities by the same name, Huxley annihilates distinctions,
enforces identity, and sweeps away the difficulties which
have impeded the progress of previous philosophers in
their search after unity. Plants and worms and men are
all protoplasm, and protoplasm is albuminous matter, and
albuminous matter consists of four elements, and these four
elements possess certain properties, by which properties all
differences between plants and worms and men are to be
accounted for. Although Huxley would probably admit
that a worm was not a man, he would tell us that by " subtle

* The iron basis of the candle, and the basis of the iron candle are
expressions evidently interchangeable.

PHYSICAL BASIS OF LIFE.

influences" the one thing is easily converted into the other,
and not by such nonsensical fictions as "vitality," which
can neither be weighed, measured, nor conceived.

Some among those who work at and think over these
matters doubt if many of Prof. Huxley's assertions are at all
justified by his facts — unless indeed he has new facts of
high importance which have not yet been brought for-
ward — and many are unable to accept arguments which by
him seem to have been considered quite conclusive. I
shall therefore venture to draw attention to some of the views
he has recently expressed in his paper, " On the physi-
cal basis of life," published in the Fortnightly Review F,
February ist, 1869.

PROTOPLASM.

The term "Protoplasm" is now applied to several dif-
ferent kinds of matter, — to substances differing from one
another in the most essential particulars. It seems, there-
fore, very desirable that its meaning should be accurately
defined by those who employ it, or that it should be super-
seded by other words. If certain authorities were asked
to define exactly the characters of the matter which they
called protoplasm, we should have from those authors defi-
nitions applying to things essentially different from one
another. Hard and soft, solid and liquid, coloured and
colourless, opaque and transparent, granular and destitute
of granules, structureless and having structure, moving and
incapable of movement, active and passive, contractile and
non-contractile, growing and incapable of growth, changing

1 2 PROTOPLASM.

and incapable of change, animate and inanimate, alive and
dead,— are some of the opposite qualities possessed by
different kinds of matter which have nevertheless been
called protoplasm.

A definition of protoplasm, most probably written by
the late Professor Henfrey in " Griffith and Henfrey's
Micrographic Dictionary," is as follows :— " Protoplasm. —
The name applied by Mohl to the colourless or yellowish,
smooth or granular viscid substance, of nitrogenous con-
stitution, which constitutes the formative substance in the
contents of vegetable cells, in the condition of gelatinous
strata, reticulated threads and nuclear aggregations, &c.
It is the same substance as that formerly termed by the
Germans ' schleim,' which was usually translated in English
works by * mucus' or ' mucilage.' " The surface of this
mass constituted the " formative protoplasmic layer" which
was supposed to take part in the formation of the cellulose
wall of the vegetable cell. This was regarded by Von Mohl
as a structure of special importance distinct from the
cell contents, and it was named by him, in 1844, the
" primordial utricle."

In cases where protoplasm appears as a simple trans-
parent homogeneous substance, several layers have been
described, and it has been supposed that these different
layers are concerned in different operations. This view has
been extended to many forms of protoplasm, and the
movements which occur have been attributed to the pre-
sence of two or more layers differing in density.

Clear, homogeneous protoplasm, it has been said, under-
goes vacuolation, and becomes honeycombed, the spaces

PRIMORDIAL UTRICLE.

being filled with watery matter. In some instances, this
change proceeds until mere protoplasmic threads are seen
stretched across the cavity. The transparent fluid material
occupying the spaces and the intervals between the threads
is supposed to be the less important matter, and yet it is
the living, growing, and moving substance ; while the
threads and walls of the spaces are composed of matter
which has ceased to manifest these properties— matter
which no longer lives, and which has been formed from the
living matter. But we may fairly ask if this lifeless, passive,
formed matter, which cannot move or grow or multiply of
itself, which is but a product of the death of protoplasm,
is nevertheless to be called by the same name as the living,
moving substance which it once was ? If this be so, there
ought to be no recognizable difference between matter
which is actually alive and the substances which result from
its death.

So far, then, we have seen that the term protoplasm has
been applied to the matter within the primordial utricle of
the vegetable cell, to that clear substance which undergoes
vacuolation and fibrillation, and to the matter forming the
walls of the vacuoles and the threads or fibrillae. Still more
recently, Von Mohl's primordial utricle has been called proto-
plasm by Professor Huxley, who some years before restricted
the term to the matter within the primordial utricle, which
matter at that time he regarded as an " accidental anatomi-
cal modification" of the endoplast, and of little importance.*
The nucleus, and with it the protoplasm, Mr. Huxley
thought, exerted no peculiar office, and possessed no meta-
* "The Cell Theory," ' Med. Chir. Rev.,' October, 1853.

PROTOPLASM.

bolic power. Now, however, he considers " protoplasm" of
the first importance ; and under this term includes, I
imagine, not only the primordial utricle and the " accidental
anatomical modifications " it encloses, but the fully-formed
cellulose wall of the vegetable cell. His " endoplast" and
"periplastic substance" of 1853 together constitute his
"protoplasm" of 1869. The old views are modified, and
although the results of researches made during the last few
years are scarcely alluded to, the writer evidently feels that
certain changes must be made. So the vacuoles of the
periplastic substance become silently tenanted by simple or
nucleated protoplasms endowed with "subtle influences"
which our author may yet admit to have existed before his
periplastic substance was formed. Next he will discover
the endoplast is of the highest importance instead of no
importance at all, and then there is but an easy step to the
doctrine that the periplastic substance is formed by and from
the protoplasm which has properties and "subtle influences" of
a remarkable kind, but is not endowed with the absurd fiction
of vitality.

Max. Schultze included under the head of protoplasm
the active moving matter forming the sarcode of the Rhizo-
pods as well as the substance circulating in the cells of
vallisneria, the hairs of the nettle, and other vegetable cells ;
and now it is generally admitted that the active, moving
matter constituting the white blood-corpuscle, the mucus
and pus corpuscle, and other contractile bodies widely dis-
tributed, is essentially of the same nature. The move-
ments characteristic of this matter have been attributed to
an inherent property of contractility j and this property

KINDS OF PROTOPLASM.

has been held by some to be characteristic of, and peculiar
to, protoplasm. Kiihne considers all contractile material
to be protoplasm, and includes the different forms of
muscular tissue in the same category as the matter of the
amoeba, white blood-corpuscle, &c. But if we apply the
term protoplasm to the contracting muscular tissue which
exhibits structure, as well as to the living moving matter of
the amoeba, &c., in which no structure at all can be made
out, it is obvious that these must be regarded as essentially
different kinds of protoplasm, because they differ in proper-
ties which are essential and of the first importance. The
contractile movement of the amoeba, white blood-cor-
puscle, &c., is a phenomenon very different from the con-
traction of muscular tissue. In the first, movements occur
in every direction, while the last is characterized by a repe-
tition of movement in two definite directions only. And
when we come to study the matter which is the seat of these
two kinds of movements respectively, we find very im-
portant differences. The matter of the amoeba, \vhite
blood-corpuscle, &c., grows. // takes up matter unlike itself,
and communicates to it its own properties. Now, muscular
tissue does not do this. In short, the first kind of matter
acts and moves of itself ; but the last can only be acted
upon and made to move. The first may be compared to a
spring, as yet undiscovered, which not only winds itself up
and uncoils, but every part of which moves in any direc-
tion, and can make new springs out of matter which has
none of the properties of a spring; the last to a spring
which can only uncoil itself after it has been wound up.
Further, the term protoplasm has not been applied only

1 6 PROTOPLASM.

to the matter of which the amoeba, the sarcode of the fora-
minifera, &c., is composed, and that which constitutes the
white blood-corpuscle and such bodies, but the matter
which is gradually assuming the form of tissue has been
considered to be of the same nature. The radiating fibres
of the caudate nerve-cells of the spinal cord have been
termed protoplasm fibres, and the outer part of the nerve-
cell with which they are continuous is composed of the
same substance. The axis cylinder of the dark-bordered
nerve-fibres and the fine ultimate nerve-fibres in peripheral
parts have been looked upon as a form of protoplasm ; but
it is hardly necessary to remark that, whatever may be the
nature of the material of which nerve-fibres and the outer
part of nerve-cells are composed4 it possesses properties
very different from those manifested by the amoeba, white
blood-corpuscle, etc., and is destitute of the powers which
characterize the matter constituting these bodies. Here
again we find the term protoplasm applied to different kinds
of matter or to matter in very different states.

But unfortunately we have by no means exhausted the
confusion which has resulted with regard to protoplasm, for
the name has been applied also to the outer, hard, dead
part of epithelial cells and by implication to all correspond-
ing structures.

Protoplasm of Huxley, 1869.

Up to this time all observers have agreed in opinion
that the cell or elementary part of the fully-formed organism

HUXLE YS PRO TO PL ASM. 1 7

consists of different kinds of matter, and it has been sup-
posed that distinct offices were performed by some of these.
They have been variously named. Cell-wall, cell-contents,
nucleus, nucleolus, periplast, endoplast, primordial utricle,
protoplasm, living matter and formed matter, are not all the
terms that have been proposed. I think Professor Huxley
is the first observer who has spoken of the cell in its
entirety as a mass of protoplasm, and the only one who has
ever asserted that any tissue in nature is composed through-
out of matter which can properly be regarded as one in
kind. This view appears to me incompatible with many
facts, some of which have been alluded to by Mr. Huxley
himself.* I doubt if in the whole range of modern science
it would be possible to find an assertion which seems more
at variance with facts familiar to physiologists than the
statement that " beast and fowl, reptile and fish, mollusk,
worm, and polype," are composed of " masses of proto-
plasm with a nucleus," unless it be that still more extra-
vagant assertion that what is ordinarily termed a cell or
elementary part is a mass of protoplasm ; — for can anything
be more unlike the semi-fluid, active, moving matter of
amoeba protoplasm, than the hard, dry, passive, external
part of a cuticular cell or of an elementary part of bone ?

I cannot forbear quoting in this place the following pas-
sage, which seems to me to require explanation. After
stating that the substance of a colourless blood-corpuscle

* "The original endoplast of the embryo cell," Huxley says, in
1853, "has grown and divided into all the endoplasts of the adult," and
"the original periplast has grown at a corresponding rate, and has
formed one continuous and connected envelope from the very first."

C

PROTOPLASM.

is an active mass of protoplasm, Mr. ^Huxley remarks that
" under stmdry circumstances the corpuscle dies and becomes
distended into a round mass, in the midst of which is seen
a smaller spherical body, which existed, but was more or
less hidden in the living corpuscle, and is called its nucleus.
Corpuscles of essentially similar structure are to be found
in the skin, in the lining of the mouth, and scattered through
the whole framework of the body" Now, what can be
meant by a white blood-corpuscle dying and becoming dis-
tended into a round mass under sundry circumstances?
Mr. Huxley goes on to say that at an early period of deve-
lopment the organism is " nothing but an aggregation of
such corpuscles," that is, of corpuscles (elementary parts
or cells) like those " found in the skin, in the lining of
the mouth, and scattered through the whole framework of
the body." This assertion is incorrect, inasmuch as the
corpuscles in the embryo consist almost entirely of (living)
matter like the white blood-corpuscle, while those of which
the skin (cuticle) and most of the tissues of the adult are
composed consist principally of formed matter with a very
little of the other (living) matter, while the oldest particles of
cuticle are entirely composed of hard formed matter. Here, as
in other cases referred to by Huxley, no distinction is drawn
between that which is living, growing, and forming; and that
which has been formed and is destitute of all powers of life and
growth. No distinction between living matter and lifeless
matter ! Both are confused together under the term " pro-
toplasm," for which might be substituted "organic matter"
or " albuminous matter." Huxley terms the particles of
epithelium of the cuticle and of mucous membranes, masses

BATHYBIUS.

of protoplasm. He says beasts and fowls, reptiles and
fishes, are all composed of structural units of the same
character. Now, this mass of protoplasm, this unit, con-
sists partly of lifeless and partly of living matter. The outer
part, which may be dry and hard, and is lifeless, may be
undergoing disintegration, and is perhaps being taken up
by other living organisms, but is nevertheless, according to
this view, just as much protoplasm as the living, growing,
moving matter itself. It does not signify how many dif-
ferent things may be comprised in the cell or elementary
part, in what essentially different states these things may
be, how different parts may differ in properties — they
constitute protoplasm. A muscle is protoplasm ; nerve is
protoplasm; bone, hair, and shell are protoplasm; a limb is
protoplasm; the whole body is protoplasm, and of course
bone, hair, shell, etc., are as much "the physical basis of
life" as albuminous matter and roast mutton. But surely
it would be less incorrect to speak of such " protoplasms "
as the physical basis of death or the physical basis of roast,
than to call dead and roasted matter the physical basis of
life. No anatomical investigation is necessary to enable us
to detect this substance. Every beast, fowl, reptile, worm,
or polyp that we see is protoplasm. Everything that lives
or has lived is protoplasm.

BatJiybius.

I will now draw attention to a new form of proto-
plasm which has been much discussed of late, and con-

C 2

20 PROTOPLASM.

earning the nature of which much difference of opinion is
entertained. From the protoplasm of the amoeba and
certain forms of foraminifera. we pass to larger and more
extended masses of this substance, included under the head
of "urschleim," and constituting the organisms of the
simplest animated beings, which have been included by
Hseckel in the genus Moner. I refer to this part of my
subject with diffidence, for I have not given much attention
to it. It would, however, be wrong to omit all mention of
what is at the same time very interesting and of great
importance. I shall therefore quote the observations of
others so far as they appear to me to bear upon the con-
sideration of the nature of protoplasm.

In the " Microscopical Journal" for October, 1868, is a
memoir by Professor Huxley " On some Organisms living
at great Depths in the North Atlantic Ocean," in which he
states that the stickiness of the deep-sea mud is due to
" innumerable lumps of a transparent gelatinous substance,"
each lump consisting of granules, coccoliths, and foreign
bodies, imbedded in a "transparent, colourless, and struc-
tureless matrix." The granules form heaps which are some-
times the ToVoth of an inch or more in diameter. The
"granule" is a rounded or oval disc, which is stained
yellow by iodine, and is dissolved by acetic acid. " The
granule heaps and the transparent gelatinous matter in
which they are embedded represent masses of protoplasm."
One of the masses of this deep-sea "urschleim" may be
regarded as a new form of the simplest animated beings
(Moner}, and Huxley proposes to call it Bathybius. The
" Discolithi and the Cyatholithi? some of which resemble

DR. WALLICITS VIEWS. 21

the " granules." are said to bear the same relation to the
protoplasm of Bathybins as the spicula of sponges do to the
soft parts of those animals ; but it must be borne in mind
that the spicula of sponges are imbedded in a matrix, which
is formed by and contains, besides the spicula, small masses
of living or germinal matter. As in other cases, this matrix,
with the living matter included, constitutes the "protoplasm"
of Mr. Huxley.*

Dr. Walliclis Observations.

Dr. Wallich, has, however, arrived at a very different
conclusion. In a paper "On the Vital Functions of the
Deep-sea Protozoa," published in No. I. of the " Monthly
Microscopical Journal," January, 1869, tn^s observer, who
has long been engaged in this and kindred studies, states
that the coccoliths and coccospheres stand in no direct
relation to the protoplasm substance referred to by Huxley
under the name of Bathybius. The former are derived
from their parent coccospheres, which are independent
structures altogether. " Bathybius" instead of being a
widely-extending living protoplasm which grows at the ex-
pense of inorganic elements, is rather to be regarded as a
complex mass of slime with many foreign bodies and the

* The idea of the existence of huge continuous masses of living
matter of enormous extent, is most fanciful and improbable. It is
opposed to well ascertained facts. So far from living matter growing
to form very large collections, it divides in almost all known instances
before it reaches the diameter even of -g-^ of an inch. I think that the
phenomena essential to living matter are only possible in minute masses
separated from one another, so that each may be supplied with nutrient
materials. See "Of Life," p. 64.

22 PROTOPLASM.

debris of living organisms which have passed away. Nu-
merous minute living forms are, however, still found on it.

Dr. Wallich is of opinion that each coccosphere is just
as much an independent structure at Thalassicolla or Col-
losphcera, and that, as in other cases, " nutrition is effected
by a vital act," which enables the organism to extract from
the surrounding medium the elements adapted for its nutri-
tion. These are at length converted into its sarcode and
shell material. In fact, in these lowest simplest forms, we
find evidence of the working of an inherent vital power, and
in them nutrition seems to be conducted upon the same
principles as in the highest and most complex beings. In
all cases the process involves, besides physical and chemical
changes, purely vital actions, which cannot be imitated, and
which cannot be explained by Physics and Chemistry.

Chemistry of Protoplasm.

From what has been said already, it must be obvious
that the chemistry of the complex matter now termed pro-
toplasm, embraces, i, the chemistry of the formed matter,
and 2, the chemistry of the active, living, growing, matter,
of the organism. By chemical analysis we can ascertain the
composition of the first, and can learn many facts con-
cerning its elementary chemical characters ; but it is obvious
that chemistry can teach us little with regard to the com-
position of the living matter, for we kill it when we attempt
to analyze it ; and in truth we analyze not the living matter,
but the substances resulting from its death. Of course any
one may say that the inanimate substances he obtains were
the actual things of which the living matter was composed,

HERBERT SPENCER ON PROTOGENES. 23

but it is a mere assertion, for the bodies in question cannot
be detected in the matter while it is actually alive; and
when obtained they do not possess the properties or powers
characteristic of the living matter. What, therefore, can be
gained by asserting that these things constitute living matter?
What is the use of trying to make people believe and con-
fess that there is no difference between a living thing and
the same thing dead, when it is clearly possible that there
may be the very greatest difference ?

And I must not omit to notice here a remark made by
Mr. Herbert Spencer, which illustrates the extraordinary
opinion entertained by him concerning the difference be-
tween living, growing, active, matter, and perfectly lifeless
matter. " On the other hand (he says) the microscope has
traced down organisms to simpler and simpler forms, until, in
the Protogenes of Professor Hseckel there has been reached
a type distinguishable from a fragment of albumen only by its
finely granular character"* Mr. Herbert Spencer should
prepare a solution of albumen and a solution of " proto-
genes," and by careful evaporation he might obtain two
extracts not distinguishable from one another. Both would
exhibit a " finely granular character," and thus the important
fact that there was no difference whatever between the
inanimate albumen and the inanimate "protogenes" would
be demonstrated. And as every one is now prepared to
admit that there is no difference between dead "proto-
genes" and living "protogenes," we must of course accept
the conclusion that the lowest forms of life are but forms of
albumen. In this way " the chasm between the inorganic
and the organic is being filled up ! "

* 'The Principles of Psychology,' p. 137.

't Ci-

24 PROTOPLASM.

Notwithstanding the clever and subtle arguments which
have been advanced in its favour, and repeated over and
over again in almost every possible form, the new doctrine
of life has exerted very little influence. It is absurd to
expect that thoughtful persons will be convinced that
vital phenonema are physical and chemical phenomena,
simply by an authoritative assertion that they are so ;
and no matter how energetically the doctrine may be
advocated, it will not be received unless it is proved to
be founded upon facts. In spite of all that has been said,
the chemist has taught us little concerning the nature of
the changes which take place when pabulum becomes
totally changed and converted into living matter, or when
the latter gives rise to some peculiar kind of formed matter.
He has shown us, it is true, that certain substances result-
ing in the organism during the disintegration of formed
matter may be prepared artificially in the laboratory; but
he knows as well as the physiologist, that their formation in
the organism is conducted upon totally different principles,
of the nature of which all are entirely ignorant. And it is
childish to attempt, as some have done, to hide our igno-
rance by referring the actions to subtle influences, cell-
laboratories, and molecular machinery, when every one
knows there is nothing like a laboratory or machinery in
any cell in any organism.

" Properties " of Matter.

Here are some specimens of the dogmatic assertions which
have been advanced in place of facts and arguments in favour
of the physico-chemical doctrines. " The difference between
a crystal of calc spar and amorphous carbonate of lime cor-

FORCE AND FORM.

responds to the difference between living matter and the
matter which results from its death. Just as by chemical
analysis we learn the composition of calc spar, so by
chemical analysis we ascertain the composition of living
matter. It is not probable that there is any real differ-
ence in the nature of the molecular forces which compel
the carbonate of lime to assume and retain the crystalline
form, and those which cause the albuminoid matter to move
and grow, select and form and maintain its particles in a
state of incessant motion. The property of crystallising is
to crystallisable matter what the vital property is to albu-
minoid matter (protoplasm). The crystalline form corre-
sponds to the organic form, and its internal structure to tissue
structure. Crystalline force being a property of matter,
vital force is but a property of matter." It might be objected
that crystalline force keeps particles still and compels them
to assume a constant form, while vital force prevents them
from assuming any definite form at all and keeps them
moving,— -form being assumed only when the matter is with-
drawn from the influence of the vital force ; but these and
any other objections raised to the physical theory of life are
accounted absurd and frivolous. It has been asserted posi-
tively that there is but one true theory of life — the physical
theory. Its advocates seem to think that any objections
raised to this ought not to be listened to, because they
assert prophetically that by the rapid advance of molecular
physics, the truth of their theory will some day be fully
established.

26 PROTOPLASM.

Aquosity and Vitality.

•

The properties possessed by inorganic compounds are
supposed to be due in some way to the properties of
the elements of which they consist Thus it has been
remarked that the properties of water result from the
properties of its constituent gases, and are not due to
" aquosity," as if any reasonable man would think of
referring the properties of water to such a " subtle in-
fluence" as " aquosity." It has been argued that since the
properties of water are due to its gases and not to aquosity,
the properties of protoplasm are due to its elements, Oxygen,
Hydrogen, Nitrogen, and Carbon, and not to vitality. But
the cases are by no means parallel. Of water there is but
one kind.* Of protoplasm there are kinds innumerable.
The constituent elements of the same particle of water may
be separated and recombined again and again as many
times as we please; but the elements of protoplasm once
separated from one another, can never be combined again
to form any kind of protoplasm. But further, every kind of
protoplasm differs from every other kind most remarkably
in the results of its living, one producing man, another dog,
a third butterfly, a fourth amoeba, and so on. Now, what
can be more absurd than to suggest that the properties of
man, dog, butterfly, and amoeba are due not to vitality, but

* A hostile critic has discovered that there are at least two kinds,
dirty water and clean water !

VITAL PROPERTIES. 27

to the constituent elements of their tissues ? Do the pro-
perties of the elements of dog differ sufficiently from those
of the elements of man, to account for the differences
between dog and man. Have we not rather identity of com-
position in the living matter, and marvellous difference in
the results of the vital actions ? How, then, can the
differences be due to the ordinary properties of the ele-
ments ? Wonderful properties have indeed to be dis-
covered in connection with elements before we can refer
the differences in property of living beings compounded
of them to the properties of the elements themselves. The
argument advanced against vitality, as far as it rests upon
the non-existence of aquosity, is utterly worthless, and it is
astonishing that any writer who gave his readers credit for
moderate intelligence should have adduced it at all.

The different forms and properties of living beings can
only be explained by supposing the influence of force dif-
ferent from ordinary forces acting upon the matter of which
they are composed, or upon the existence of properties
other than the inorganic properties transmitted or handed
down from pre-existing matter having similar, though, per-
haps, not identical properties. These vital properties seem
to be superadded to matter temporarily, and are obviously
not permanent endowments. The one class of properties
remains permanently attached to the elements of matter ;
the other may be once removed, but can never be restored.
The material properties belong to the matter, whether living
or dead ; but where are the vital properties in the dead
material? If physicists and chemists would restore to life
that which is dead, we should all believe in the doctrine

28 PROTOPLASM.

they teach. So long as they tell us their investigations only
tend towards such a consummation, they must expect a few
to be wanting in faith.

Sheep, Lobster, and Hitman Protoplasm.

Mr. Huxley seems to maintain that protoplasm may be
killed and dried, roasted and boiled, or otherwise altered,
and yet remain protoplasm ; but his " protoplasm" is after all
only albuminoid or protein matter.* Huxley says lobster-
protoplasm may be converted into human protoplasm, and
the latter again turned into living lobster. But the statement
is incorrect; because, in the process of assimilation "pro-
toplasm" is entirely disintegrated, and is not converted into
the new tissue in the form of protoplasm at all; and he
must permit me to remark that sheep cannot be transub-
stantiated into man, even by " subtle influences," nor can
dead protoplasm be converted into living protoplasm, or a
dead sheep into a living man. And what is gained by calling
the matter of dead roast mutton and of a living growing sheep
by the same name ? If the last is the physical basis Qtlife one
does not see how the first can be so too, unless roast mutton
and living sheep are identical ; but surely Mr. Huxley does
not really mean to assert this.

It is remarkable that Huxley himself, some sixteen years

* Mr. Huxley says "all protoplasm is proteinaceous ; or, as the
white or albumen of an egg is one of the commonest examples of a
nearly pure protein matter, we may say that all living matter is more or
less albuminoid." If the white of an egg is living matter, why should
not its shell be so considered ?

WHAT IS PROTOPLASM?

29

ago, drew a distinction between living and non-living matter
which he now, without any explanation, utterly ignores.
He remarked that the stone, the gas, the crystal, had an
inertia, and tended to remain as they were unless some ex-
ternal influence affected them ; but that living things were
characterized by the very opposite tendencies. He referred
also to " the faculty of pursuing their own course" and the
"inherent law of change in living beings." In 1853, the
same authority actually found fault with those who at-
tempted to reduce life to " mere attractions and repulsions,"
and considered physiology " simply as a complex branch ot
mere physics." He also remarked that "vitality is a pro-
perty inherent in certain kinds of matter."

To sum up in few words. The term protoplasm has
been applied to the viscid nitrogenous substance within the
primordial utricle of the vegetable cell and to the threads
and filaments formed in this matter; to the primordial
utricle itself; to this and the substances which it encloses;
and to all these things, together with the cellulose wall ; to
the matter composing the sarcode of the foraminifera ; to
that which constitutes the amoeba, white blood-corpuscle,
and other naked masses of germinal matter ; to the matter
between the so-called nucleus and muscular tissue, and to
the contractile matter itself; to everything which exhibits
contractility ; to nerve-fibres, and to other structures pos-
sessing remarkable endowments ; to the soft matter within
an elementary part, as a cell of epithelium ; to the
hard external part of such a cell; to the entire epithelial
cell.

30 PROTOPLASM.

Inanimate albuminous matter has been regarded as
protoplasm. Living things have been spoken of as masses
of protoplasm ; the same things dead have been said to be
protoplasm. If the matter be boiled or roasted, it is still
protoplasm ; and there seems no reason why it should not
be dissolved, and yet retain its name protoplasm.

GERMINAL OR LINING MATTER,
AND FORMED MATTER.

OTHING that lives is alive in every part Pro-
bably no one would maintain that the shell of
an oyster or mussel, for example, was, like the
living moving mollusk itself, in a living state. Never-
theless, the shell grows, but upon careful examination
it will be found that growth is restricted to certain
points. It grows at the free edge and upon the inner
surface, and thus increases in dimensions. By far the
greater part of the shell, therefore, is as lifeless while it yet
remains connected with the living animal as after it has
been preserved in our cabinet. The new matter which
is added to it by the living creature is prepared and
formed through the instrumentality of living matter. In
man, and the higher animals, the free portions of the
nails and hair, the outer part of the cuticle, and a por-
tion of the dental tissues, are evidently lifeless. But the
waste and removal of these is compensated for to a great
extent by the addition of new matter by living particles.
Of the internal tissues a great part is also in a non-living
condition, and it therefore becomes necessary in all in-
quiries concerning the nature of the changes and actions
taking place in living beings, to determine at the outset,
what parts of these beings are in a living state, and what

32

PROTOPLASM.

parts have already ceased to live, although they may per-
form important service of a passive kind, and be connected
with the matter that is actually alive. Even in the smallest
organisms which exhibit the simplest characters, as well as
in every texture of the most highly complex beings, we can
demonstrate two kinds of matter, differing in most remarkable
particulars from one another ; or perhaps it would be more
correct to say, matter in two different states manifesting
different properties and exhibiting differences in appearance,
chemical composition, &c., and physical characters. This
distinction is essential and invariable, and although by calling
everything entering into the composition of a living being
by the same name, all differences of state, structure, and
composition may be ignored, these cannot be destroyed ;
and every one who really desires to learn anything about
the structure, growth, and actions of living things will find
himself compelled to admit these differences, and will at once
proceed to investigate how they are to be accounted for.

In my lectures at the Royal College of Physicians, in
the spring of 1860, I demonstrated in various tissues of
plants, animals, and man in health and disease, matter in
the two different states above referred to, and I showed
that every normal and abnormal cell or elemental unit of
every tissue capable of growth, or possessing formative
power, invariably consisted of matter in these states or
conditions : i. Living, active, formative ; 2. Lifeless, pas-
sive, formed. In my preparations these were at once dis-
tinguished, the first being artificially coloured with carmine,
while the matter in the last condition was unchanged.

As investigation proceeded, I became more and more

i

LIVING AND FORMED MATTER. 33

convinced of the importance of this distinction, and it was
proved that the matter coloured, which had been considered
by many authors to be of little importance, was really in
the living, active, growing state. Upon it all growth, multi-
plication, conversion, formation, and in short life depends.
And in many instances when death occurred, the matter in
the first state alone changed, while the last remained un-
altered. The first was alone capable of dying, for, in fact,
this only had been alive. On the other hand, the matter
in the second condition, although it may possess very re-
markable properties, and have a highly complex chemical
composition never grows or multiplies. It never converts or
forms. New matter may be added to it, but it cannot con-
vert matter of itself. In short it does not live.

Lastly, facts and arguments were advanced which showed
that all matter in the last or formed state was once in the
first or living state, so that the properties it acquired and
the characters it possessed as formed matter were to be
attributed to the changes which had been brought about
while the matter existed in the antecedent or living state.

There is reason to think that not even the smallest
living particle seen under the i~5oth of an inch objective
consists of matter in the same state in every part, for it
consists of— i, living matter; 2, matter formed from this;
and 3, pabulum, which i takes up.

The matter in the first state is alone concerned in develop-
ment, and the production of those materials which ultimately
take the form of tissue, secretion, deposit, as the case may be.
It alone possesses the power of growth and of producing
matter like itself out of materials differing from it entirely

D

34 PROTOPLASM.

in properties and powers. I therefore called it germinal or
living matter, to distinguish it from the formed material,
which is in all cases destitute of these properties. The
difference between germinal or living matter and the pabu-
lum which nourishes it, on the one hand, and the formed
material which is produced by it, on the other, is, I believe,
absolute. The pabulum does not shade by imperceptible
gradations into the living matter, and this latter into the
formed material ; but the transition from one state into the
other is sudden and abrupt, although there may be much
living matter mixed with a little lifeless matter or vice versa.
The ultimate particles of matter pass from the lifeless into
the living state, and from the latter into the dead state,
suddenly. Matter cannot be said to half-live or half-die.
It is either dead or living, animate or inanimate; and formed
matter has ceased to live.

Matter may be more or less perfectly or imperfectly
formed, and formed matter may differ in hardness, colour,
consistence, and a number of other qualities, and it may
gradually pass from one state into the other ; but nothing
of this kind is observed in the case of the germinal matter.
The formed matter may possess very remarkable properties,
and may undergo various physical and chemical changes
under the influence of heat, moisture, oxygen, &c. It may
permit some fluids to permeate it, and may interfere with
the passage of others. It may contribute to the stability of
the organism, and perform a variety of important functions,
but it cannot take the place of the germinal or living matter,
nor in many cases does it exhibit its characteristic properties
after the death of the germinal matter belonging to it.

-

LIVING AND FORMED MA TTER, AND PAB UL UM. 3 5

The terms Living Matter, Formed Matter y and

Pabulum.

Since many kinds of formed matter had been called
protoplasm as well as the matter which is in the living state,
I should have been wrong if I had employed that term in
speaking of living matter. From the time when my re-
searches were made to the present, the confusion in the use
of the word protoplasm has increased, until every form of
tissue has been thus called, as well as every kind of germinal
or living matter. And it would only add to the existing
confusion if any attempt were now made again to alter the
meaning of the word ; so that, upon the whole, it seems
better to use the more simple term living or germinal matter
to denote the growing, active, moving substance which is
peculiar to everything living, and which is alone concerned
in the multiplication, growth, and formation of all tissues
and organisms.

Living or germinal matter, formed matter, and pabulum,
are the only terms required in describing the development,
formation, and growth of any tissue, the production of
secretions, and other phenomena peculiar to living things ;
and I have ventured to suggest the use of these terms,
because they have the advantage of being simple. They
can be accurately defined and distinguished from other
terms. They are short, expressive, and can be remembered
without difficulty, and there is certainly an absence of that
mysteriousness which hangs about so many of our scientific
words in ordinary use, and greatly adds to the difficulties
experienced by the student.

D 2

3 6 PROTOPLASM.

General Characters of Germinal Matter.

The characters of germinal matter may be studied in the
lowest organisms in existence, and in plants, as well as in
man and the higher animals. Germinal or living matter is
always transparent, colourless, and, as far as can be ascer-
tained by examination with the highest powers, perfectly
structureless, and it exhibits these same characters at every
period of existence. The germinal matter of the thallus of
the growing sugar fungus exists in considerable quantity,
and is well adapted for examination. The growing ex-
tremity of the branch is rounded, and here the process of
growth is going on with great activity. When the operation
of staining has been conducted successfully, these growing
extremities are more deeply stained than the rest of the
germinal matter. A similar fact is observed if one of the

O

placental tufts is submitted to examination. At the extreme
end of each tuft is a mass of germinal matter which is darkly
stained by the carmine fluid. Behind this, and growing
towards it, is the vascular loop ; but as the tufts grow, the
mass of formless, structureless germinal matter at the end of
each moves onwards, the vessels being developed in its
wake. This formless living matter moves forwards nd
burrows, as it were, into the nutrient pabulum, some of
which it takes up as it moves on. It is not pushed from
behind, but it moves forward of its own accord. In a
similar manner the advancing fungus bores its way into the
material upon which it feeds, and the root filament insinuates
itself into interstices between the particles of the soil. In
the hair, the germinal matter grows and multiplies at the

AMCEBA.

37

base or bulb, pushing the firm and already formed tissue
before it. In the first case, the germinal matter is increasing
at the extremity of a filament which it spins behind it as it
moves on ; in the last, the tissue already formed is pushed
on by the production of new texture in its rear. The ex-
tremity of the hair is its oldest part, and nearest to the root
is the tissue which was most recently formed. But whe-
ther germinal matter moves on in its entirety, or, advancing
from a fixed point, forms a filament, a tube, or other
structure which accumulates behind it, or itself remains
stationary while the products of formation are forced on-
wards in one direction, or outwards in all, the nature of the
force exerted is the same, and due to the marvellous power
which one part of a living mass possesses of moving in advance
of another portion of the same, as may be actually seen to occur
in the humble amoeba, in the mucus- or in the white blood-
corpuscle from marts organism, as well as in the pus corpuscle
formed in disease.

Amoeba. — Among the simplest living things known to us
are the amoebae, which might be almost described as animate
masses of perfectly transparent moving matter. Amoebae,
fig. 4, pi. II., can be obtained for examination by placing a
small fragment of animal or vegetable matter in a little
water in a wine-glass, and leaving it in the light part of a
warm room for a few days. I have found it convenient to
introduce a few filaments of cotton wool into the water.
The amoebae collect amongst the fibres, which prevent them
from being crushed by the pressure of the thin glass cover.

The delicate material of which these simple creatures
are composed exhibits no indications of actual structure,

38 PROTOPLASM.

although it is darker and more granular in some parts than
in others. The germinal matter of all organisms, and of
the tissues and organs of each organism, exhibits precisely
the same characters. It fives, and grows, and forms in the
same way, although the conditions under which the phe-
nomena of life growth and formation are carried on differ
very much in different kinds of germinal matter. A tem-
perature at which one kind will live and grow actively will
be fatal to many other kinds. So, too, as regards pabulum,
— substances which are appropriated by one form of ger
minal matter will act as a poison to another. But the way
in which the germinal matter moves, divides and subdivides,
grows, and undergoes conversion into tissue, is the same in
all. Many remarkable differences in structure, properties,
action, and character, are associated with close similarity,
if not actual identity of composition. These must, there
fore, be attributed not to properties of elements, physical
forces, chemical affinities, or other characters which we
can ascertain or estimate by physical examination, but to
a difference in vital power which is inherited, which we
cannot estimate, but which it would be unreasonable to
ignore.

On Vital Movements.

One characteristic of every kind of living matter is
spontaneous movement. This, unlike the movement of
any kind of non-living matter yet discovered, occurs in all
directions, and seems to depend upon changes in the matter
itself, rather than upon impulses communicated to the par-
ticles from without.

-

VITAL MOVEMENTS.

39

I have been able to watch the movements of small
amoebae, which multiplied freely without first reaching the
size of the ordinary individuals. I have represented the
appearance under a magnifying power of 5,000 diameters of
some of the most minute amoebae I have been able to
discover. (Plate II, fig. 3.) Several of these were less

than -fooVoo'th °^ an ^ncn m diameter, an(^ 7et were in a state
of most active movement. The alteration in form was
very rapid, and the different tints in the different parts of
the moving mass, resulting from alterations in thickness,
were most distinctly observed. The living bodies might, in
fact, be described as consisting of minute portions of very
transparent material, exhibiting the most active movements
in various directions, in every part, and capable of absorbing
nutrient materials from the surrounding medium. A portion
which was at one moment at the lowest point of the mass
would pass in an instant to the highest part. In these
movements one part seemed, as it were, to pass through
other parts, while the whole mass moved now in one, now
in another direction, and movements in different parts of
the mass occurred in directions different from that in which
the whole was moving. What movements in lifeless matter
can be compared with these ?

The movements above described continue as long as the
external conditions remain favourable ; but, if these alter
and the amoeba be exposed to the influence of unfavourable
circumstances — as altered pabulum, cold, &c. — the move-
ments become very slow, and then completely stop. The
organism becomes spherical, and the trace of soft formed
material upon the surface increases until a firm protective

x

PROTOPLASM.

covering, envelope, or cell-wall results. In this way the
life of the germinal matter is preserved until the return of
favourable conditions, when the living matter emerges from
its prison, grows, and soon gives rise to a colony of new
amoebae, which exhibit the characteristic movements.

Mucus Corpuscle. — Every one knows that upon the
surface of the mucous membrane of the air-passages, even
in health, there is a small quantity of a soft viscid matter
generally termed mucus. This mucus, said to be secreted by
the mucous membrane, contains certain oval or spherical
bodies or corpuscles, which are transparent and granular.
From the changes of form which take place in them, it is
certain that the matter of which they are composed is
almost diffluent. These corpuscles or cells are mucous cor-
puscles, but they have no cell-wall. They are separated
from each other by, and are embedded in, a more or less
transparent, viscid, tenacious substance formed by the cor-
puscles, and termed mucus. (Plate II, fig. i.)

No language could convey a correct idea of the changes
which may be seen to take place in the form of the living
mucus or pus corpuscle ; every part of the substance of a
corpuscle exhibits distinct alterations within a few seconds.
The material which was in one part may move to another
part. Not only does the position of the component particles
alter with respect to one another, but it never remains the
same. There is no alternation of movements. Were it
possible to take hundreds of photographs at the briefest
intervals, no two would be exactly alike, nor would they
exhibit different gradations of the same change ; nor is it
possible to represent the movements with any degree of

VITAL MOVEMENTS.

accuracy by drawings, because the outline is changing in
many parts at the same moment. I have seen an entire
corpuscle move onwards in one definite direction for a dis-
tance equal to its own length or more. Protrusions would
occur principally at one end, and the general mass would
gradually follow. Again, protrusions would take place in
the same direction, and slowly the remainder of the cor-
puscle would be drawn onwards, until the whole had
been removed from the place it originally occupied, and
would advance onward for a short distance in the mucus in
which it was embedded. From the first protrusions smaller
protrusions very often occur, and these gradually become
pear-shaped, remaining attached by a narrow stem, and in a
few seconds perhaps again become absorbed into the
general mass. From time to time, however, some of the
small spherical portions are detached from the parent mass,
and become independent masses of germinal matter, which
grow until they become ordinary mucus corpuscles, pi. II,
fig. 2. Are these phenomena, I would ask, at all like
any known to occur in lifeless material ?

The component particles evidently alter their positions
in a most remarkable manner. One particle may move in
advance of another, or round another. A portion may
move into or round another portion. A bulging may occur
at one point of the circumference, or at ten or twenty
different points at the same moment. The moving power
evidently resides in every particle of a very transparent,
invariably colourless, and structureless material. By the
very highest powers only an indication of minute spherical
particles can be discerned. Because molecules have been

42 PROTOPLASM.

seen in some of the masses of moving matter, the motion has
been attributed to these. It is true the molecules do move,
but the living transparent material in which they are situated
moves first, and the molecules flow into the extended portion.
The movements cannot, therefore, be ordinary molecular
movements. It has been said that the movements may result
from diffusion, but what diffusion or other movement with
which we are acquainted at all resembles these ? Observers
have ascribed them to a difference in density of different
parts, but who has been able to produce such movements by
preparing fluids of different density ? But further, in the case
of the living matter, these supposed fluids of different density
make themselves and retain their differences in density.

Nor is it any explanation of the movements to attribute
them to inherent " irritability," unless we can show in what
this irritability essentially consists. Some dismiss the
matter by saying that the movements depend upon the
property of " contractility," but the movements of germinal
matter are totally distinct from contractility, as manifested
by muscular tissue ; since they take place in every direction,
and every movement differs from the rest, while in muscular
contraction there is a constant repetition of changes taking
place alternately in directions at right angles to one
another ; and hence, if the movements in question be due
to contractility, it is necessary to assume two very different
kinds of contractile property.

The movements in the mucus corpuscle and in the amoeba,
are of the same nature as those which occur in the germinal
matter of many plants, as is easily observed in the cells of
the leaves of the vallisneria or the anacharis, in the chara

PLATE II.

GEE: i OK LIVING : TATTER.

'

Fig. 1.

V "

• -' -

>--- -, - i - .'.

' / '^

\*'f &;., '- • , o

\s . ; :• i -•• % • r

' 1 , i! «.!, ' *;

•t ' f <> .: .- &Y

J V V i: ''•".-, l '

f i • P^V • -. . i J. ;

•) \Y'': i '•- -

'\; ••• '

;; j ' (^v !\

-S from the trachea during life, magnifittl
700 diameters.

ig. 3.

'

One of the livini mucus cor -presented

in Fii 1 , rnaiiiifie'"! l.y the sI,-j= . i

showing as in form during
mm

Fig. 4.

•

*

^*C

*r iP'

Nf ;
'--

:^>- -V

•

-

V'-ry minute living anapebse, magnified 5000
diamet

Fig. 5.

rnaU amaeba, rnaanified by the -*r> =
diameters.-

Fig. 6.

ilinute particle of germinal matter fromlivinA

pus corpuscle, showing the different forms

•which it assumed in the course o £ five seconds.

X 2800.

1000th. of an inch

Particles of ierminal matter from vaccine
lymph. X • 000.

i X 1000.

A line five times the length of this vrill re] the f.'oo of an inch magnified

NE W LIVING CENTRES. 4 3

and in the hairs of the flower of Trade sea ntia ; and the
appearance of the living matter under very high powers is
precisely the same in all cases. Similar movements certainly
occur in pus, and in cancer, and probably in every kind of
living matter in health and in disease, pi. II, figs. 5 and 6.
In some instances the movements continue for many hours
after the living matter has been removed from the surface
upon which it grew. In other cases, and we shall not be
surprised that this should be so in the higher animals, death
occurs the instant the conditions under which the living
matter exists are but slightly modified. In many instances
no movements can be seen, but the evidence of their occur-
rence is almost as decided as if they were visible, for we
discern certain results which can only be explained by the
occurrence of such movements as have been referred to.

I have often tried to persuade the physicist, who has
so long prophesied the existence of molecular machinery in
/iving beings, to seek for it in the "colourless, structureless,"
germinal matter. But he contents himself with asserting
that such machinery exists, although he cannot see it or
make it evident to himself or others.

Of New Centres — Nuclei and Nucleoli.

In many masses of germinal matter a smaller spherical
portion . often appearing a mere point is observed, and in
some cases this divides before the division of the parent mass
takes places. This, however, is not necessary to the process,
for division takes place in cases in which no such bodies

44

PROTOPLASM.

are to be seen, and it frequently happens that one or more
of these smaller spots or spherical masses may appear in
its substance, after a portion of germinal matter has been
detached from the parent mass. These are to be regarded
as new centres composed of living matter. Within these a
second series is sometimes produced. The first have been
called nuclei, and those within them nucleoli. Marvellous
powers have been attributed to nuclei and neucleoli, and
by many these are supposed to be the agents alone con-
cerned in the process of multiplication and reproduction.
Nuclei and nucleoli are always more intensely coloured with
alkaline colouring matters than other parts of the living or
germinal matter, a fact which is alone sufficient to show the
difference between a true nucleus or new centre, and an oil
globule, which has often been wrongly termed a nucleolus.
I have endeavoured to show that the bodies called nuclei
and nucleoli may be regarded as new centres which have
arisen in already existing germinal matter. These new
centres may be few or very numerous, and there may be
many successive series of such centres, each, when it comes
to be developed, manifesting powers different from the
pre-existing series. And in certain cases it would appear
that as this process of formation of new centres, one within
the other proceeds, new powers are acquired, or if we suppose
that all possessed the same powers, those masses only which
were last produced retain them, and manifest them when
placed under favourable conditions. Although nuclei and nu-
cleoli are germinal or living matter, they are not undergoing
conversion into formed material. Under certain conditions
the nucleus may increase, and exhibit all the phenomena of

NEW LIVING CENTRES.

ordinary germinal matter — new nuclei may be developed
within it, new nucleoli within them ; so that ordinary ger-
minal matter may become formed material, its nucleus
growing larger and taking its place. The original nucleolus
now becomes the nucleus, and new nucleoli make their
appearance in what was the original nucleolus. The whole
process consists of evolution from centres, and the produc-
tion of new centres within pre-existing centres. Zones of
colour, of different intensity, are often observed in a cell
coloured with carmine ; the outermost or oldest, or that part
which is losing its vital powers, and becoming converted
into formed material, being very slightly coloured, — the
most central part, or the nucleus, although furthest from the
colouring solution, exhibiting the greatest intensity of colour.
These points are illustrated in PI. VI, fig. 19, and some
other figures.

Germinal matter, in a comparatively quiescent state is
not unfrequently entirely destitute of nuclei, but these
bodies sometimes make their appearance if the mass be
more freely supplied with nutrient matter. This fact may
be noticed in the case of the connective tissue corpuscles,
and the masses of germinal matter connected with the walls
of vessels, nerves, muscular tissue, epithelium, &c., which
often exhibit no nuclei (or according to some, nucleoli), but
soon after these tissues become supplied with an increased
quantity of pabulum, several small nuclei make their appear-
ance in all parts of the germinal matter. (PI. VIII, fig. 36.)

So far from nuclei being formed first and the other
elements of the cell deposited around them., they make their
appearance in the substance of a pre-existing mass of

fi-r-c. - £

(

'

46 PROTOPLASM.

germinal matter, as has been already stated. The true
nucleus and nucleolus are not composed of special con-
stituents differing from the germinal matter, nor do they
perform any special operations. Small oil-globules, which
invariably result from post-mortem changes in any germinal
matter, have often been mistaken for nuclei and nucleoli,
but these terms if employed at all should be restricted to
the minute masses of germinal matter referred to.

THE CELL OR ELEMENTARY PART.

The living matter, with the formed matter upon its
surface, whatever may be the structure, properties, and
consistence of the latter, is the anatomical unit, the elementary
part or cell. This may form the entire organism, in which
case, it must be regarded as a complete individual. Millions
of such elementary parts or cells are combined to form
every tissue and organ of man and the higher animals.
However much organisms and tissues in their fully formed
state may vary as regards the character, properties, and com-
position of the formed material, all were first in the condi-
tion of clear, transparent, structureless, formless living matter.

Every growing cell, and every cell capable of growth,
contains germinal matter. The young cell seems to consist
almost entirely of this living material — a fact well observed
in a specimen of cuticle from the young frog, which may
be contrasted with more advanced cuticle from the same
animal. In the mature cells only a small mass of germinal
matter (usually termed the nucleus) remains.

In the fully formed fat cell there is so little germinal

PLATE HI.
OVA Or" THE COMMON STICKLEBACK.

PRODUCTION OF Niw LIVING CENTRES IN PRE-EXISTING LIVING MATTER.

Fie.

Fi

.an ova und^
. the midst of a d-
- comj osrd i :

diametc

:an ovum, •with lanje terminal vesicle.
oik cracked and s ra-

diating outwaids. Magnified 100 diaru

Gerrnin.il <. ors t'rom n ruptured germinal vesicle. X o-"0. The
ovum was 7,\ uirli in diatnrter, and the germinal vesicle 5^75-

. 10.

tnely sm n/cl spots, with uew

ceu

Germinal spots, with new centres (nucleoli)
more minute . i mmal spots
in t ] :

ICOOth of am , , x

x 550.

r/

[To face pa,i

THE CELL OR ELEMENTARY PART. 47

matter left, that it may be easily be overlooked. In disease,
on the other hand, the germinal matter may increase to three
or four times its ordinary dimensions, when it becomes a
very striking object. The ovum at an early period of its
development is but a cell consisting of a mass of germinal
matter, with a new centre and often with numerous new
centres (known as germinal spots or nuclei) embedded in it,
enclosed in a capsule of formed material.

The mode of formation of the cell, or elemental unit,
as well as the origin from it of other units is well illustrated
in the formation of the ovum. In pi. Ill, fig 7, the cells
constituting the tissue of the ovary of the common stickle-
back are represented, and amongst them are seen true ova
at a very early period of development. The youngest of
these differs but little from the cells amongst which it lies.
It is, in fact, but one of these which has advanced in de-
velopment beyond the rest. In fig. 8, a small but complete
ovum is seen with its germinal, or living matter, here called
germinal vesicle, surrounded by the yolk which consists of
formed matter. In the germinal matter are seen numerous
germinal spots, which are new living centres of growth
originating in living matter. In these are new centres, figs.
9, 10, n, and in these last others would have appeared at a
later period. In all cases the lifeless nutrient material must
pass into the very centre of the living particles, before the
peculiar vital properties are communicated to it.

48 PROTOPLASM.

On tJie Production of Formed Material.

The processes of growth and increase, as they occur in
the tissues of all fully-formed living beings, may be well
studied in the simple tissue which forms the external cover-
ing of the body, and is prolonged in a modified form into
the internal cavities. If a thin section be made perpendi-
cularly through this, down to the tissue which contains the
nerves and blood-vessels upon which it rests, the appear-
ances represented in pi. IV, fig. 12 will be observed.

In the first place, it will be remarked that in equal bulks
of the tissue there is a larger quantity of germinal matter in
the lower part, a, which is close to the vessels, than in the
upper part, <r, which is a long distance from the nutrient
surface, and that the converse is the case as regards the
formed material which gives to this tissue its properties
and physical characters. Secondly, it will be noticed that
the individual masses of germinal matter increase in size
till they arrive at about half way towards the surface, ^, while
from this point to the surface they diminish, c ; and thirdly,
that the distance between them increases on account of the
increased formation and accumulation of formed material.
By the time the cells have reached the surface, the distance
between the masses of germinal matter is reduced again, by
the drying and condensation of the formed material.

The changes which each individual cell or anatomical
unit passes through may now be considered. At the deep
aspect near the nutrient surface are masses of germinal matter
embedded in a soft, mucus-like, and, as yet, continuous

i

EPITHELIAL CSLLS F] i LOUTH. GERMINAL OR LIVING MATTER, RED
ilED MATERIAL, BLACK. SI] LNG CHANGES D tNG GROWTH.

• ^-

.

•

ation

i sectioii uiri luyh - i na covi ;

m • uieolary nu

clus-rst to th- ULitnenl matter a:e H^-'-n
but the soft • me a co) .:unous ma IE

c^lls, and are multiplying in. 3 bei

gerrniua'. matter to 8

'Cc, c, to tak- . med material becoi ,

the reiriaias o: !

J X '

FORMED MATERIAL.

49

formed material, a. The masses of germinal matter divide,
and each of the resulting masses becomes invested with a thin
layer of the mucus-like matter. In this way, the elementary
parts or cells multiply in number, to compensate for
the loss of those old cells which are gradually removed
from the surface.* Each mass of germinal matter increases
in size by the absorption of nutrient pabulum, which, as
in all other cases, passes through the layer of formed
material. But at the same time, a portion of the germinal
matter undergoes conversion into formed material, which
accumulates upon the surface within that already formed,
and as each new layer is deposited upon the surface of the
germinal matter, those layers of formed material already pro-
duced are stretched, and with them the last developed are
more or less incorporated. PI. VIII, fig. 28, p. 60. For a
time, the germinal matter increases, while new-formed
material is being produced. In other words, both the
constituent parts of the entire cell increase in amount
up to a certain period of its life. PI. IV b. But as
new cells continue to be produced below, those already
formed are gradually removed farther and farther from
the vascular surface, while at the same time their formed
material becomes more condensed and less permeable to
nutrient matter. From this point, each entire cell ceases
to increase in size, while the germinal matter actually

* The description here given is not strictly accurate, inasmuch as
the new masses of germinal matter do not all move in a direction to-
wards the surface. Some tend in the opposite direction, towards the
subcuticular tissue, but this need not be discussed here, as it would
complicate the description without helping in any way to elucidate the
question now being considered.

E

50 PROTOPLASM.

diminishes, because it undergoes conversion into formed
material ; at the same time, owing to the increased density
of the formed material, and its greater distance from the
vessels, little new pabulum is taken up to compensate for this.
The germinal matter (nucleus) becomes smaller as the cell
advances in age. So that it is possible to judge of the age
of a cell, irrespective of its size, by the relative amount of
its component substances. In old cells, there is much
formed material in proportion to the germinal matter, while
young cells seem to be composed almost entirely of the latter
substance. In very old cells, the small portion of germinal
matter still unconverted into formed material, dies, and the
cell having by this time arrived at the surface, is cast off, — a
mass of perfectly passive, lifeless, formed material.

The facts here described are illustrated in the figure
represented in PL IV, which should be carefully studied.

Of tlie so-called Intercellular Substance.

In cartilage and some other tissues, there is no line of
separation between the portion of formed material which
belongs to each mass of germinal matter, as is the case
in epithelium, but the formed material throughout the
entire tissue forms an uninterrupted mass of tissue, matrix ?
or, as it has been termed, connective substance. PL V.
From the apparent essential difference in structure, it has
been supposed that tissues of this character were developed
upon a principle very different to that upon which epithelial
structures were produced. It has been maintained by some
that in cartilage a cell wall, distinct from the intervening
transparent material, existed around each cell, and it has

PLATE .

EPITHELIAL CELLS AND CARTILAGE, SHOWING FORMED MATERIAL IN THE
TWO TISSUES RESPECTIVELY AND THE MODE OF ITS FORMATION.

ie\ 13.

-' .

J^'-'^f^ ••''~-<&§r"t
.tt?$-.-$p:n

)M: "p?^S;tfC|^.

fi .fcS* / -i-'ftffif :.'•,! / r i' / ?A'» / > . <1LV -^gf/

'--'-*•

:

i : e front of the t^ve) <;f a

show: ' vl couuuuous aud not, yet

b mass c
i . calls. >

Superficial or older cells, fron
same specnn-n as Fit;. 13, sh'
formed material i::eloijfiin§ to
mass of germinal matter, iivini
to the ap o: separate or.Ls

X oOO.

n

.••*' Of^f- r».

i®»^

-

! continuous

•i i.

I

I X

INTERCELLULAR SUBSTANCE.

been very generally concluded that the matrix was depo-
sited between the cells, and hence this was called " inter-
cellular substance." But it must not be supposed that
epithelium is in all cases to be distinguished from cartilage
by the existence of separate cells. In many forms of epi-
thelium at an early period of formation, the formed material
corresponding to the several masses of germinal matter is
continuous throughout, and presents no indications of divi-
sion into separate cells. This is well seen in the lower
part of the specimen represented in pi. IV, but in fig. 13,
pi. V, an unusually striking example of this is given. The
specimen was taken from the deeper portion of the con-
junctival epithelium of man. Not only is there no indi-
cation of division into distinct cells, but the structure
would be described as a matrix exhibiting spaces occu-
pied by the masses of germinal matter. The arrange-
ment exactly corresponds with that existing in the case of
cartilage, and the masses of germinal matter with a thin
investment of formed material may be removed just as in
that tissue. It is, therefore, clearly erroneous to consider
cartilage and epithelium as representatives of different classes
of tissues. The analogy between them will be at once under-
stood by a glance at fig. 13, and fig. 15, which have been
carefully copied from actual specimens. In fig. 14, a portion
of older epithelium from the same surface is represented.
In this, each mass of germinal matter is invested with its
own layers of formed material, and these are distinct from
neighbouring portions. A " cell," or elementary part of
fully-formed cartilage and tendon, consists of a mass of
germinal matter, with a proportion of formed material

E 2

5.2 PROTOPLASM.

around it. A line passing midway between the several
masses of germinal matter would mark roughly the limit of
the formed material, corresponding to each particular mass
of germinal matter, and this would correspond with the
outer part of the surface or boundary of the epithelial cell.
In order to understand the true relation of the so-called
intercellular substance of cartilage or tendon to the masses
of germinal matter, it is necessary to study the tissue at
different ages. At an early period of development, these
tissues appear to consist of masses of germinal matter only.
As development advances, the formed material increases,
and the masses of germinal matter become separated farther
and farther from one another. PI. VI, fig. 16. The appear-
ances of a cell wall around the germinal matter in the
fully-formed tissue, and other alterations which occur, and
anomalous appearances which often result as age advances,
can be even more readily understood upon the view here
advanced, than upon the intercellular-substance theory
which has been so strongly supported by some observers.
See pi. VI, figs. 1 6 to 22.

Of the Formation of the Contractile Tissue of Muscle.

A muscle " cell," or elementary part, will consist, like
that of cartilage and tendon, of the so-called nucleus, with
a portion of the muscular tissue corresponding to it. In
general arrangement it closely resembles what is seen in
tendon. The contractile material of muscle may be shown
to be continuous with the germinal matter, and oftentimes
a thin filament of the transversely striated tissue may be
detached with the oval mass of germinal matter still con-

CARTILAGE SHOWING MODE OF
.

'

•'$??:'*

ae*r^ , \\^
••-:;»£. w ;^"

"•ffe^W *^*

PLATE
PRODUCTION OF FORMH.D MATERIAL.

. 17-

0 •*

o

«

^^
Carli" •! -minal ma

II

<x&-

'*&&

at ? ,, en at fcirtl

b,s.- ' :r\".' fall grown; d a Uilt

cat. X -.'lo. Sbov/
proportions i

: -
i . I.

YounA cartilu^e, kitten, showing the

: ER wn B

.' A1ERIAI

• SION. X 1 -

Fig. 19.

showing gei-rninal :
indergo conversi"u into ion:
mai>

Fig.

•77 the actual coii*' minal matter of cartilage into the formed material

, in the very centre of the germinal

11 dual rnatcej
:-:

J X 700.

WHAT IS A CELL.

53

nected with it, showing that, as in tendon, the germinal
matter passes uninterruptedly into the formed material. In
the formation of the contractile tissue, the germinal matter
seems to move onwards, and at its posterior part gradually
undergoes conversion into tissue. At the same time it
absorbs nutrient material, and thus, although a vast amount
of contractile tissue may have been produced, the germinal
matter which formed it may not have altered in bulk.
PL VII, fig. 25. The fibres of yellow elastic tissue are
formed in the same manner, and each fibre is thickened by
the formation of new material from germinal matter, which
lies upon the external surface of each fibre, fig. 26.

The Formation of Nerve Fibres.

The nerve fibre is composed of formed material, which
is structurally continuous with the formed material of the
nerve cells of the nerve centres. A nerve fibre at an early
period of development consists of a number of oval masses
of germinal matter linearly arranged. As development
proceeds, these become separated farther and farther from
one another, and the tissue which is thus spun off as they
become separated, is the nerve. PI. VII, fig. 27.

What is essential to the Cell ?

All that is essential to the cell or elementary part is
matter that is in the living stake— germinal 'matter, and
matter that has been in the living state — -formed material.
With these is usually associated a certain proportion of
matter about to become living — the pabulum or food. So
that we may say that in every living thing we have matter

54 PROTOPLASM.

in three different states — matter about to become living,
matter actually living, and matter that has lived. The last,
like the first, is non-living, but unlike this it has been in the
living state, and has had impressed upon it certain characters
which it could not have acquired in any other way. By
these characters we know that it has lived, for we can no
more cause matter artificially to exhibit the characters of the
dried leaf, the lifeless wood, shell, bone, hair, or other tissue,
than we can make living matter itself in our laboratories.

Cells are not like Bricks in a Wall.

Cells forming a tissue have been compared to bricks in
a wall, but the cells are not like bricks, they have not the
same constitution in every part, nor are they made first and
then embedded in the mortar. Each brick of the natural
wall grows of itself, places itself in position, forms and
embeds itself in the mortar of its own making. The whole
wall grows in every part, and while growing may throw
out bastions which grow and adapt themselves perfectly to
the altering structure. Even now it is argued by some
that because things, like fully formed cells, may be made
artificially, the actual cells are formed in the same sort
of way — an argument as forcible as would be that of a
person, who after a visit to Madame Tussaud's exhibition,
seriously maintained that our textures were constructed
upon the same plan as the life-like wax figures he had
seen there.

Every one who really studies the elementary parts of
tissues and investigates the changes which occur as the
germinal matter passes through various stages of change
.y. /

f £/

7

--. ''•

r

CELLS NOT LIKE BRICKS. 55

until the fully developed structure results, will be careful
not to accept without due consideration the vague generali-
sations of those who persist in authoritatively declaring that
the changes occurring in cell growth are merely mechanical
and chemical, although they are unable to produce by any
means at their disposal a particle of fibrine, a piece of carti-
lage, or even a fragment of coral. They avoid the difficulty
as regards the germinal matter by ignoring its existence, and
attribute to a " molecular machinery" which the mind cannot
conceive, and which cannot be rendered evident to the
senses, all those wonderful phenomena which are really due
to vital power. Moreover, resemblances to living organisms
of the most fanciful kind are adduced apparently for the
purpose of leading people to believe that non-living matter
behaves like that which is alive.*

On the Nutrition of a L iving Cell.

In nutrition, the active changes are exclusively confined
to the germinal matter. The formed material is passive,

* Professor Tyndall describes (Proceedings of the Royal Society,
vol. xvii, No. 105) the changes resulting from the influence of light on
the vapour of an aqueous solution of hydriodic acid. His rhapsodical
description, which extends over an entire page, contains the following
curious allusions and comparisons : — A cloud was developed like an
organism from a formless mass to a marvellously complex structure ;
spectral cones with filmy drapery ; exquisite vases with the faintest
clouds, like spectral sheets of liquid, falling over their edges ; clouds
like roses, tulips, sunflowers, and bottles one within the other ; a cloud
like a fish, with eyes, gills, and feelers, and like a jelly fish, with the
internal economy of a highly complex organism, exhibiting the twoness
of the animal form ; as perfect as if it had been turned in a lathe ; and
likely to prove exceedingly valuable to pattern designers !

56 PROTOPLASM.

and probably acts like a filter, permitting some things to
pass and interfering with the passage of others. In nutrition,
pabulum becomes germinal matter to compensate for the
germinal matter which has been converted into formed
material. Now let us consider the order of these changes,
and endeavour to express them in the simplest possible
manner.

Let the germinal matter which came from pre-existing
germinal matter be called a; the non-living pabulum, some
of the elements of which are about to be converted into
germinal matter, shall be b; and the non-living formed
material resulting from changes in the germinal matter, c.

It is to be remarked that b does not contain c in solu-
tion, neither can c be made out b unless b first passes
through the condition a, and a cannot be formed artificially,
but must come from pre-existing a.

In all cases b is transformed by a into a, and a under-
goes conversion into c. Can anything be more unlike
chemical and physical change ? Neither a, nor b, nor c can
be made by the chemist ; nor if you give him b can he
make a or c out of it ; nor can he tell you anything about
the "molecular condition" or chemical constitution of a,
for the instant he commences his analysis a has ceased to
be a, and he is merely dealing with products resulting from
the death of a, not with the actual living a itself. The
course which the pabulum takes in the nutrition of the
germinal matter of a cell is represented by the arrows in
fig. 23, pi. VII.

PLATS
FRITION AND MOVEMENTS OF GERMINAL MAT1

' •-.

;,;-._

,/"'"- "'•',

m

•

It, supposed pabulum, flo'wini in tb«^ ilif

•:g into th-
••

/•* r iest portion of formed u

A rnu erminal matter showing

: Ltter and

;iy'er of soft formed material O]

• - ! .' '

Fig.

a b

(contra »sue)

- 51 . --ow. It : a o and 4 it, has n a

•: : coutrfictile I

Fig.

. r is raov:;

ue as ic [ < a said tl

number
germinal ma:: -,!-prepai> ":ens.

.-pment of youni dark-bordered nerve fibres at a ve: niinal

m;i: aed material of young element at 1800.

aci ! -i'

CELL INCREASE.

57

Of the Increase of Cells.

Several distinct modes of cell increase or multiplication
have been described, but in all cases the process depends
upon the germinal matter only. It is this which divides ; and
it is the only part of the cell which is actively concerned in
the process of multiplication. It may divide into two or
more equal portions, or give off many buds or offsets, each
of which grows as a separate body as soon as it is detached.
PL VIII.

The formed material of the cell is perfectly passive in
the process of increase and multiplication. If soft or
diffluent, a portion of this may collect around each of the
masses into which the germinal matter has divided, but it
does not grow or move in and form a partition, as has often
been stated. When a septum or partition exists, it results
not from "growing in," but it is simply produced by a portion
of the germinal matter undergoing conversion into formed
material of which the partition is composed. PI. V, fig. 15
a and b.

Of tJie Changes in the Cell in Disease.

I have endeavoured to show that of the different con-
stituents of the fully formed cell, the germinal matter is
alone concerned in all active change. This is in fact the
only portion of the cell which lives, while at an early period
of development, some of the structures usually regarded as
essential to cell existence are altogether absent, and the cell
is but a mass of germinal matter. But it must be borne in
mind that at all periods of life, in certain parts of the
textures and organs, and in the nutrient fluids, are masses

58 PROTOPLASM,

of germinal matter, destitute of any cell-wall, and exactly
resembling those of which at an early period the embryo
is entirely composed. White blood and lymph corpuscles,
chyle corpuscles, many of the corpuscles in the spleen,
thymus and thyroid, corpuscles in the solitary glands, in
the villi, some of those upon the surface of mucous mem-
branes, some in connection with muscle, nerve, bone, carti-
lage, and some other tissues, are of this nature, and consist
of living germinal matter, with mere traces of soft formed
material around each mass. There is no structure through
which these soft livirg particles, or small portions of living
matter detached from them, may not make their way. The
destruction of tissue may be very quickly effected by the
growth and multiplication of such masses of germinal
matter. Many of the changes in disease result from the
undue growth of this substance, and indeed there is no
operation peculiar to living beings in which germinal .or
living matter does not take part. Any sketch of the struc-
ture of the cell would be incomplete without an account of
some of the essential alterations which occur in it in disease.
I propose, therefore, to refer very briefly to the general
nature of some of the most important morbid changes.

Within certain limits, the conditions under which cells
ordinarily live may be modified without any departure from
the healthy state, but if the conditions be very considerably
changed, disease may result, or the cell may die. For
instance, if cells, which in their normal state grow slowly,
be supplied with an excess of nutrient pabulum, and increase
in number very quickly, a morbid state is engendered. Or
if, on the other hand, the rate at which multiplication takes

CELL IN DISEASE.

59

place be reduced in consequence of an insufficient supply
of nourishment, or from other causes, a diseased state may
result. So that, in the great majority of cases, disease or
the morbid state essentially differs from health or the healthy
state in an increased or reduced rate of growth and multi-
plication of the germinal matter of one or more particular
tissues or organs. In the process of inflammation, in the
formation of inflammatory products, as lymph and pus, in the
production of tubercle and cancer, we see the results of in-
creased multiplication of the germinal matter of the tissues
or of the germinal matter derived from the blood, con-
sequent upon the appropriation of excess of nutrient pabulum.
In the shrinking, and hardening, and wasting which occur
in many tissues and organs in disease, we see the effects of
the germinal matter of a texture being supplied with too
little nutrient pabulum, in consequence sometimes of an
alteration in the pabulum itself, sometimes of an undue
thickening and condensation of the tissue which forms the
permeable septum, which intervenes between the pabulum
and the germinal matter.

The above observations may be illustrated by reference
to what takes place when pus is formed from an epithelial
cell, in which the nutrition of the germinal matter, and
consequently its rate of growth, is much increased. And
the changes which occur in the liver cell in cases of wasting
and contraction of that organ (cirrhosis) may be advanced
as an illustration of a disease which consists essentially in
the occurrence of changes at a slower rate than would be
the case in the normal condition, consequent upon the
normal access of pabulum to the germinal matter being
interfered with.

60 PROTOPLASM.

The outer hardened formed material of an epithelial cell
may be torn or ruptured mechanically, as in a scratch or
prick by insects, pi. VIII, figs. 32 to 35 ; or it may be
rendered soft and more permeable to nutrient pabulum by
the action of certain fluids which bathe it. In either case
it is clear that the access of pabulum to the germinal matter
must be facilitated, and the latter necessarily "grows" — that
is, converts certain of the constituents of the pabulum that
come into contact with it into matter like itself — at an
increased rate. The mass of germinal matter increases in
size, and soon begins to divide into smaller portions, fig. 33.
Parts seem to move away from the general mass, fig. 34.
These at length become detached, and thus several separate
masses of germinal matter, which are embedded in the
softened and altered formed material, result, figs. 34, 35.
These changes will be understood by reference to the figures
in plate VIII. In this way the so-called inflammatory
product pus results. The abnormal pus-corpuscle is pro-
duced from the germinal or living matter of a normal epithe-
lial cell, the germinal matter of which has been supplied with
pabulum much more freely than in the normal state. In all
forms of inflammation, the germinal matter of the parts
inflamed increases very much, and the same change occurs
in every kind of fever, fig. 36, pi. VIII, but not to the same
extent. In both conditions there is increased development
of heat due to the increase of the germinal matter. In-
flammations and fevers are so very closely related that an
inflammation may be spoken of as a local fever, and a
fever as a general inflammation.

It will be seen how easily the nature of the changes
occurring in cells in inflammation, fever, and other morbid

PLAT :

• :UTK.ITION O? HEALliL, 1O THK 1NFLA.M O?

DISEASE.

?u>. 3.

, .

-^

:i of formed material fron, . - also PI '

. - 33.

Fig. 30.

. on

Increase of size of germinal matter in. an
t ceil trom iucreased nutrition.

Eupture of formed ma'

^--ting^ee a, ^J^

in.

the tree access of pabu,

Fig. 34.

Fig.

Division and. multiplication c-
minal matter of adult cell from in-
creased access of pabulum In this
way 'pus corpuscles' may be formed
from the germinal matter of
thelium.

Multiplication of pus corpuscles.

Fig. 36.

m?-

Portion of muscle in fever, showing enlargement and multiplication of masses of germinal TT>
irom increased nutrition. This appearance is common to fever and inflammation, x 700.

Young and quickly firovrii; : -Mum in health or disease, stir -

germinal matter and soft formed material surrounding it. x 700.

lOGOth of an inch

i x 700.

[To .

GERMINAL MATTER IN DISEASE. 6 1

changes, can be explained, if the artificial terms, cell-wall,
cell-contents ', nucleus, be given up. In all acute internal
inflammations and in fevers a much larger quantity of in-
animate pabulum is taken up by certain cells and con-
verted into germinal matter than in the normal state.
Hence there is, at least in the parts affected, increase in
bulk. Cells of particular organs, which live very slowly in
health, live very fast in certain forms of disease. More
pabulum reaches them, and they grow more rapidly in
consequence.

In cells which have been growing very rapidly and are
returning to their normal condition, in which the access of
nutrient pabulum is more restricted than in the abnormal state,
as is also the case in normal cells passing from the em-
bryonic to the fully-formed state, the outer part of the
germinal matter undergoes conversion into formed material,
and this last increases although the supply of pabulum is
reduced.

From these observations it follows that disease may re-
sult in two ways — either from the cells of an organ growing
and multiplying faster than in the normal state, or from
their doing so more slowly. In the one case, the normal
restrictions under which growth takes places are diminished ;
in the other, the restrictions are greatly increased. Pneumonia,
or inflammation of the lung, may be adduced as a striking
example of the first condition, for in this disease millions of
minute masses of germinal matter which have escaped from
the blood suspended in liquor sanguinis (exudation) grow and
multiply very rapidly in the air cells of the lung, and nutrient
constituents are diverted from other parts of the body to this
focus of morbid activity. Contraction and condensation of

PROTOPLASM

the liver, kidney, and other glands, hardening, shrinking,
and wasting of the muscular, nervous, and other tissues, are
good examples of the second. The amount of change
becomes less and less as the morbid state advances, the
whole organ wastes, the secreting structure shrinks, and at
last inactive connective tissue alone marks the seat where
most active and energetic changes once occurred. It is easy
to see how such a substance as alcohol must tend to restrict
the rapid multiplication of the cells when the process is
too active, and how it would tend to promote the advance
of disease in organs where rapid change in the cells charac-
terizes the normal state.

These considerations lead us to conclude that the rate
of growth of cells in disease may be accelerated or retarded
by an alteration in the character of the pabulum which is
transmitted to them, and with the view of influencing these
changes we shall naturally search for remedies which have
the property of rendering tissues more or less permeable
to nutrient fluids, or which alter the character of the fluid
itself. Such considerations have a very important bearing
upon the practical treatment of disease.

Many of the so-called tonics have the property of
coagulating albuminous fluids and solutions of extractive
matters. Preparations containing tannin, the mineral salts,
such as the sulphate and sesquichloride of iron, nitric and
hydrochloric acids, and a host of other remedies that will
occur to every one, possess this property, and render solu-
tions containing these and allied substances less permeable,
perhaps by increasing their viscidity. The favourable action
of such remedies is probably due to their direct influence
on the fluid constituents of the blood. They, no doubt,

TREATMENT. 63

also reduce the rate at which blood-corpuscles are disinte-
grated, and at the same time they tend to render the walls
of the blood-vessels less permeable to fluids.

But, of all remedies, I believe alcohol acts most rapidly
in this way, and in these particular cases most efficiently.
The properties alcohol possesses of hardening animal tis-
sues, and of coagulating albuminous fluids, are well known ;
and these properties must not be forgotten when its effects
in the animal body are discussed. Of course, when ab-
sorbed by the blood, it does not actually coagulate the
albuminous matters ; but it probably renders them less fluid,
and reduces their permeating property. Alcohol interferes
with the disintegration of blood-corpuscles ; and in cases
where this is going on very rapidly, and where fluid is pass-
ing through the walls of the vessels in considerable quantity,
in consequence of the walls themselves being stretched and
too readily permeable to fluids, alcohol is likely to be of
service ; but where these changes are occurring very rapidly,
and the patient's strength is fast ebbing, it may save life.

Alkalies, on the other hand, tend to render formed
material more permeable to fluids, and thus facilitate the
access of pabulum to the germinal matter. They are often
useful in cases where there is shrinking and wasting of
textures which in the normal condition consist principally
of germinal matter. The value of potash, soda, lithia, and
their carbonates, as well as the salts of many vegetable
acids which become converted into carbonates in the system,
act beneficially in this way, as well as producing favourable
changes of other kinds.

OF "LIFE:'

HAT is to be understood by the term life: is a
question which has been answered very differ-
ently by different authorities in these days, and
it is one to which a satisfactory reply has never yet been
received. Few words are in more frequent use, and yet
it is most difficult to define the meaning of this word
fife, partly no doubt, because it has been used in so many
different senses. By the "life" of the world, of a nation,
or of a society, we mean something very different from what
we mean by the " life" of an individual ; for may not many
individuals perish without the life of the world, of a nation,
or of a society being destroyed or impaired? The "life" of
a man, or an animal, is very different from what is termed
the "life" of a white blood-, or of a mucus, or pus corpuscle ;
inasmuch as many hundreds of white blood corpuscles, or
elemental units of the tissues, might die in the man, without
affecting the " life " of the man ; moreover the man might
die, and some of the corpuscles remain alive.

" Life," as employed in the first instance, comprises a
great number of results and changes so complicated, and so
different from one another, that volumes might be written
without the subject being exhausted. The "life" of a man
or an animal includes phenomena of essentially different kinds,
some being mechanical and chemical, while others belong to a

OF LIFE. 65

totally different class. Physical and chemical actions may be
investigated in many ways, but so far as we have got, the last
class of actions (vital) seems to be beyond investigation, and
has not yet been satisfactorily accounted for. If we regard
the life of a man, for example, as the sum of all the actions
going on in his body, the sum will be made up of a number
of very different and heterogeneous items. To sum up these
together and express the result in a common total would be
as unmeaning as it would be to add ounces to shillings
and inches. By the " life " of a white blood corpuscle or
other small mass of living matter we mean the property or
power or conditions to which the phenomena, characteristic
of this and other kinds of matter in the same state, are
referable.

Here then are three distinct senses in which the term
life has been employed, and more might be adduced. It
must, therefore, be obvious that by the life of a man some
thing very different is understood from what is meant by
the life of each elemental unit of his organism, and the
difference is not merely of degree but of kind.

We cannot prove that life results from, or is invariably
associated with such and such chemical and physical changes,
or is due to certain external conditions, and it is easy to ad-
duce instances in which life is present under opposite and
conflicting circumstances. In short the conditions under
which life exists are so many and so variable that it is not
reasonable to attribute it to any conceivable combinations
of external circumstances unless we may assume that the
very same phenomena result from the concurrence of very
different conditions.

F

66 PROTOPLASM.

Is a Tissue living because attacked to a Living

Organism ?

Some appear to think that a change in position only will
make all the difference as regards the proper application of
the term vital, and seem to hold that a tissue should be
called alive as long as it remains attached to a living body,
dead when detached, irrespective of changes occurring in the
tissue itself. But it is obvious that a leaf, or an elementary
part, may be as devoid of life while it remains attached to
the living trunk as after its connection with it has been
completely severed. To say that a dead leaf exhibits life as
long as it hangs on to the branch would be absurd, because
differences of a much more important character proclaim
whether the leaf be alive or dead, irrespective of its con-
nection with the tree.

Not long ago, it was stated that a living thing might
spring from a dying or dead one, as a fungus from a dead
elm, by mere transference of force from the latter to the
former, — that the departing life-force of one thing became
transformed into the life of the new one.

Chemical and Mechanical Changes in Living Beings.

Neither should changes which are admitted to be me-
chanical and chemical, when they occur in the laboratory, be
called vital, merely because they take place in a living
organism. It is the nature of the change alone which
determines its vital or non-vital character. But the term

CHEMICAL CHANGES. 67

vital is constantly applied to actions which, for the last
fifty years, have been admitted to be mechanical and
chemical, and the confusion with regard to the meaning
of the word has been further increased by the assertion
that mechanical and chemical actions are the only actions,
that are to be called vital. Some philosophers have
indeed arrived at the conclusion that in truth there are
no vital as distinguished from physical and chemical actions.
Further, it has been held that as we can imitate osmose,
oxidize certain substances and produce in the laboratory
compounds like those formed in the body, we may pro-
phesy that all other actions occurring in living beings will
eventually be imitated. But it would be as reasonable to
maintain that because we can now produce urea we shall
by and by be able to form a hair or develop an eye out of
the contents of a crucible, or that as we can build up by syn-
thesis very complex organic compounds, ere long we shall
be able to make a brain cell which will form ideas. Because
we can make many products like those resulting from the
disintegration of tissues, does it therefore follow that in the
time to come we shall be able to develop an embryo by
the admixture of two kinds of albuminous fluids prepared
artificially? As oxygen and hydrogen can be made to
combine by the contact of platinum, therefore it is said
certain combinations of living particles are also examples
of catalytic action. Because many actions have been attri-
buted to vitality which are unquestionably physical and
chemical, therefore all actions which are now regarded as
vital will ultimately be proved to be physical. Those who
argue in this way fail to perceive that they are dealing with

F 2

68 PROTOPLASM.

two different classes or kinds of actions. The truth is physics
and chemistry have never advanced one step in the direc-
tions indicated. Great things have been done, but in
altogether different lines of enquiry. Strange as it may
seem many undoubtedly high authorities have for years past
failed to distinguish between the act of construction in the
case of a machine or an organism, and the work performed
by it after its construction is complete. They have failed to
recognize any difference between formation and action, and
have forgotten that before an organ can act or perform its
function, it must be formed, and that its function and mode
of action are in great measure determined by the changes
which occurred during its formation.

The power or force which is concerned in the formation
of an organ endowed with the most exquisite faculties is
supposed to be of the same essential nature as that which
causes certain kinds of matter to assume a definite cry-
stalline form. The formation of organs and structures
designed for the fulfilment of definite purposes which must
have been foreseen, as it were, from the earliest period of
development, is supposed to result from nothing more than
the action and reaction of the properties and forces of the
elements of matter concerned, and the external conditions
to which it is exposed. But it must be borne in mind that
temporary structures are first produced which are useless in
themselves and only serve as a provisional basis for the
development of the masses of germinal matter from which
permanent structure is to be evolved.

"THERE IS NO LIFE." 69

Actions in Living Beings.

A very little observation will convince us that in the
body there are very different kinds of actions proceeding
simultaneously. The formation and growth of muscular
tissue would seem to be processes essentially distinct from
its contraction, and yet both sets of phenomena have been
attributed to the influence of the same forces. But building
up and breaking down — solution and precipitation —
development of structure and its removal — addition of matter
to, and removal of matter from, a tissue — have been attri-
buted to the operation of the ordinary forces. But not one
of these phenomena as they occur in living beings can be ex-
plained by any known laws of physics, or imitated artificially.

" There are no truly vital actions," " there is no life,"-
say some, and thus evade further discussion of this mo-
mentous question. But it has been shown that there is a
marked distinction between the living matter and the formed
matter (see p. 32), and that the phenomena going on in
these two kinds of matter respectively are essentially dif-
ferent, and can be considered apart from one another. By
ignoring altogether this and other important facts of obser-
vation, which have been demonstrated of late years, and by
calling those who differ from them " vitalists ;•" by saying
that facts opposed to their view are unimportant, and stigma-
tizing every argument against their doctrines as frivolous,
and under cover of jokes about the fiction of vitality,
making bold assertions, popular teachers may partially suc-
ceed in forcing upon the people the acceptance of dogmas
which are utterly untenable. The interest is excited by the

* I'H ^C*"-*

*%A/\J ^

.

70 PROTOPLASM.

very forcible and high-sounding terms employed, but the
writing is often remarkable for vagueness and laxity of ex
pression, and conspicuous for its complete want of precision
and clearness of meaning, and the use of terms that beg
the question under consideration.

The matter in dispute has, at least as regards my own
observations, been actually misrepresented ; for—

1. It has been said that the actions which I have
termed vital are really physical and chemical.

2. The actions to which I have restricted the term
vital, and which occur in the germinal matter only, have
been completely ignored.

But although the new schools hold it absurd to suppose
that any peculiar power acting from within or from without
can influence the changes in matter, or direct its forces,
they see no impropriety in attributing to matter itself, and
to force, guiding and directing, and forming agencies.
They transfer to the non-living those active, controlling,
and directing powers which have been hitherto considered
as limited peculiarly to the living world. It is the inorganic
molecule, not will, or mind, or power, which governs,
arranges, and guides.

Only recently, Professor Huxley has affirmed that a
"particle of jelly" (protoplasm ?) guides forces."1 But
the Professor has not explained what he means by
guiding physical forces. He should have given us some

* Mr. Huxley remarks, that to his mind it is a /for/ of the profound -
est significance that "this particle of jelly (!) is capable of guiding
physical forces in such a manner as to give rise to those exquisite and
almost mathematically arranged structures," £c. — "Introduction to the
Classification of Animals."

JELL Y GUIDING FORCES. 7 1

idea of the property or force by virtue of which this jelly,
this matter, is enabled to guide forces, and how the pro-
perty was acquired. What are the laws which govern it,
and how comes it that physical forces obey matter ; what
is the nature of the act of guiding spoken of? Does every
kind of matter, under certain circumstances, guide forces,
or only certain combinations of matter, or only special kinds
of matter? Is it due to a mere command that is mys
teriously obeyed, or to some repulsion or attraction, or if
there be a subtle influence, what is the nature of this, and
whence did it come ? Here, as in many other cases, Mr. Hux-
ley makes an assertion which he expects his pupils to receive
without telling them the grounds he has for making it.
No doubt Mr. Huxley feels quite satisfied that what he
states is true. He speaks so authoritatively about fact and
law (" fact I know, and law I know,") that one scarcely
dares to venture to beg for an explanation of anything
Mr. Huxley has affirmed.

But many students ask if Mr. Huxley's " facts" have
been confirmed, and are anxious to learn something con-
cerning the evidence upon which they are supposed to
rest. Why should the idea of jelly guiding forces be a
fact of profound significance, and the idea of " vitality ':
acting upon the particles of this jelly, and guiding them
and their forces, be a fiction., frivolous, absurd, ridiculous,
fanciful, &c. ? Again ; some think that physical forces
guide matter, but here we have the new doctrine taught
that matter guides physical forces. But it may be that
neither matter nor force is capable of guiding or directing
force or matter.

PROTOPLASM.

Mr. Huxley agrees with those who attribute to matter
itself that which has been attributed by others to power
acting upon the matter. One view is, that matter guides
and rules itself of itself; another, that matter is guided and
ruled by something acting upon it.

Concerning the dictum about jelly guiding physical
forces, I shall venture to remark — i. That living matter is
not jelly ; 2. That neither jelly nor matter is capable of
guiding or directing forces of any kind ; and 3. That the
capacity of jelly to guide forces, which Professor Huxley
says is a fact of the profoundest significance to him, is
not a fact at all, but merely an assertion.

Living matter is first called a name given to non-living
matter; then it is asserted that this does so and so, which
it has never been proved to do ; this is next stated to be a
fact of the profoundest significance ; and by such devices
the public is taught to believe in the creative and directing
power of the non-living. Arguments of another kind have
already led many to accept as an article of faith the dogma,
that it is force alone which forms and builds, and designs
and makes ; and that the only source of the countless
living things which people this earth is the sun, — " the God
of this new world."

ACTIONS OF LIVING MATTER.

73

ACTIONS CHARACTERIZING EVERY KIND OF

LIVING MATTER, BUT NEVER OCCURRING IN ANY

FORM OF NON-LIVING MATTER.

Let us now proceed to inquire whether there are any
characters or phenomena which are common to all kinds of
matter that lives, and manifested by this only. All living
matter grows, and moves, and forms, of its own accord, while
non-living matter cannot be made to do any of these
things. Hence it is fair to say that growth, spontaneous
movement, and formation are vital phenomena. We cannot
at present conceive of life without a capacity for these phe-
nomena. The actions may remain dormant for a time, but
when circumstances are favourable, they manifest themselves
very distinctly. Although in many cases these vital pheno-
mena may be hidden and obscured by very evident physical
and chemical changes, we shall invariably find evidence of
them. By tracing the various actions in living beings
towards their source, we shall always find that these vital
actions underlie the rest, and contribute in a most important
measure to the results we are able to observe, study, and
investigate. And as neither growth, spontaneous move-
ment, nor formation, have been imitated artificially, or known
to occur in non-living matter, or proved to result from
physical actions, I attribute these phenomena to vitality,
or vital power or force, or to life, until a more satisfactory
explanation shall be discovered.

I regard this " vitality " as a power of a peculiar kind.

74 PROTOPLASM.

exhibiting no analogy whatever to any known forces. It
cannot be a property of matter, because it is in all respects
essentially different in its actions from all acknowledged
properties of matter. The vital property belongs to a
different category altogether.

That the properties of elements which disappear, or
are changed when compounds are formed, are really re-
tained, can be proved, because when each element is again
isolated it manifests its elemental properties ; but the vital
properties are lost whenever living matter dies, and are
never regained by the same particles. The vital actions
of the highest and lowest known forms of living mat-
ter appear to be of the same essential nature, although
the results of vital actions upon the form, properties, and
composition of the material produced are very different
in different organisms. But between the vital actions of the
simplest and most degraded forms of living matter, and any
actions that are known to occur under the most complex
circumstances, in non-living matter, there appears to be no
analogy whatever. Instead of attributing the phenomena
peculiar to living beings to any force or power of a peculiar
or special kind, it is considered more in accordance with
the " tendencies " of scientific investigation in these days,
and much more philosophical to assert that the phenomena
which I have called vital are the consequences of antece-
dent physical phenomena.

When one portion of a mass of living matter is seen to
move in advance of other portions it may be said that the
movement is due to some phenomenal alteration which
occurred just before. But what evidence have we that this

VITAL PHENOMENA.

75

change which cannot be rendered evident to our senses
was really phenomenal ? This movement is one of the
essential attributes of living matter. We cannot conceive of
living matter without the capacity for such movement. The
growth of the forest could no more be accomplished with-
out this wonderful power of movement which overcomes
the attraction of gravitation, than the changes in form of
the simplest living particles, or the active movement of the
vibrio or the vibration of a cilium. The visible changes
which occur in the form of a mass of germinal or living
matter undoubtedly succeed and are a consequence of
antecedent changes, but what do we know about these ante-
cedent changes ? All we have learnt positively is that the
matter moves in a manner peculiar to matter of this kind.
Shall we account for the movement by saying — that it is a
consequence of antecedent phenomena — or that it is due to
an inherent tendency to move — or to a property which it has
derived from matter like it from which it came — or to some
mysterious agency acting from without or from within, or to
the action and reaction of forces acting in both directions ?
It is not possible to prove why the matter moves because we
have no means of investigating its state just prior to the
occurrence of the actual movement, but the universality of
this movement in the living world convinces us that it is of
the highest importance and very intimately related to life
itself. This movement has been shown to be peculiar and
so far has not been excited in any form of non-living matter.
Is it not, therefore, reasonable to suppose that the condition
which immediately precedes the occurrence of actual move-
ment is also peculiar to living matter ? But is it a phenomenal

7 6 PROTOPLASM.

change ? Some action, state, or condition, must undoubt-
edly take place in the matter just prior to movement,
differing from the condition or state which obtains in the
living matter when no movement is about to occur, but we
cannot demonstrate any difference whatever; neither have
we yet been able to discover any means by which the state
of change just preceding active movement can be dis-
tinguished from the state of ordinary and comparative rest.
We do not in fact know when a movement is about to
occur, we only know the fact of its occurrence. If the
state just preceding movement is to be attributed to ante-
cedent phenomena, the state of rest might with equal pro-
priety be attributed to the very same antecedent phenomena.
It is doubtful if the word phenomenon is at all applicable
to the supposed change in the relations of the particles of
living matter which results in actual movement. Is it
correct to speak of a condition or state which cannot be
rendered evident to the senses, as a phenomenon ? A
certain change common to every kind of living matter
occurs just prior to the movement of its particles which
universally distinguishes this from every other known state
of matter. As the movement is peculiar, its cause must be
peculiar, and it seems more reasonable to attribute this to
some peculiar power manifested by living matter only, than
to an antecedent phenomenon which is different in its
essential nature from every other action or change to which
the term phenomenon has been applied. In truth, when
we enter upon the consideration of the cause of the
changes in living matter, we soon get beyond the limits of
observation and experiment. It may of course be said that

VITAL PHENOMENA. 77

such discussions are therefore futile and out of the province
of science. But if this view be accepted we must cease to
enquire almost as soon as we have commenced to in-
vestigate. In that case the consideration of the growth,
formation and action of the simplest being, and of every
elementary unit entering into the formation of the tissues
of every living creature must be as a sealed book. And
it would be absurd to attempt to describe the processes
of growth, formation and secretion, as they occur in living
beings. The question not only lies at the very root of
physiology, but forces itself upon our consideration at every
step. It must, therefore, be discussed, and provisional
hypotheses may be advanced if only to mark the paths
already traversed in the course of our difficult and never-
ending exploration.

That the physical school should try to stop all enquiry
at this very point is exactly what might be expected, for
the subject is obviously out of the path of physical enquiry,
but it by no means, therefore, follows that nothing is to be
learnt concerning it. No wonder that those who would
have us believe that the highest aspirations of the soul are
but manifestations of so many units of force, desire to
chain the mind so tightly to the material that it shall
no longer exercise one of its remarkable endowments —
that of stretching towards regions into which the senses
cannot penetrate. Is the mind to follow the senses,
instead of leading, controlling, and directing them? Are
the senses to govern the intellect and to dictate to it the
conditions under which it may work ? But even the dis-
ciples of the physical school cannot altogether refrain from

PROTOPLASM.

advancing vain speculations and fanciful hypotheses. Is it
then the attempt to speculate in one particular direction
that gives such offence in these days, and which ought to
be put down, with the utmost firmness ? The new school
professes to consider all enquiries worthless which are not
conducted by experiment and observation, and yet how many
obscure and doubtful facts of observation and experiment
are advanced and used as scientific certainties, when the
magic light of physical theory has been projected upon
them? It is indeed very desirable to bring us face to face
with " facts," but it is astonishing how many grand facts of
the profoundest significance are slowly resolved into harm-
less fictions of the imagination condensed and duly con-
centrated into very strong language to suit the dictates of
a party determined to make people think in one way only,
or to prevent them from thinking at all. But the autho-
ritative language of opponents need not deter us from
entering upon the discussion of a matter which is of
more than ordinary interest to all, and I shall venture to
draw certain conclusions concerning the probable nature of
life ; although I can only receive indirect assistance from
observation and experiment.

OF VITALITY.

How are we to explain the wonderful changes which
take place in the germinal or living matter, and how are we
to account for the capacity which this exhibits of passing
through orderly series of changes, the last of which seems
to have been provided for, and, as it were, anticipated from
the very first ?

VITALITY. 79

There is in living matter nothing which can be called a
mechanism, nothing in which structure can be discerned.
A little transparent colourless material is the seat of these
marvellous powers or properties by which the form, struc-
ture, and function of the tissues and organs of all living
things are determined. But this transparent material pos-
sesses a remarkable power of movement as has been
already referred to. See page 39. It may thus transport
itself long distances, and extend itself so as to get through
pores, holes, and canals too minute to be seen even with
the aid of very high powers. There are creatures of
exquisite tenuity which are capable of climbing through
fluids and probably through the air itself — creatures which
climb without muscles, nerves or limbs — creatures with
no mechanism, having no structure, capable when sus-
pended in the medium in which they live, of extend-
ing any one part of the pulpy matter of which they
consist beyond another part, and of causing the rest to
follow. As if each part willed to move and did so, or
moved in immediate response to mandates operating upon
it from a distance, governed by some undiscovered, and at
present unimagined laws, — creatures which multiply by sepa-
rating into two or more parts without loss of substance, or
capacity, or power. It would seem that each part pos-
sessed equal powers with the whole, for the smallest particle
detached may soon grow into a body like the original mass
in every respect ; and the process may be repeated infinitely
without any loss or diminution in capacity or power. It
may be asked if there is anything approaching this oc-
curring within the range of physics or chemistry.

So PROTOPLASM.

Of a Living Spherule.

Let us imagine we could look into the ultimate particles
of the living, active, moving matter, and consider what we
should probably discern. I think we should see spherules
of extreme minuteness, each composed of still smaller
spherules, and these of spherules infinitely minute. Such
spherules have upon their surface a small quantity of matter
differing in properties from that in the interior, but so soft
and diffluent that the particles may come into very close
proximity. In each little spherule the matter is in active
movement, and new minute spherules are being formed in
its central part, and these are making their way outwards
so as to give place for the formation of new ones, which
are continually appearing in the centre of every one of
the living particles. The rate of growth of the entire
mass varies with the rate at which the new particles are
evolved in the centre.

Each spherical particle is free to move in fluid, and the
intervals between the particles are occupied by fluid. This
fluid contains, in solution, —

1. Matter about to become living ;

2. Substances which exert a chemical action, but do
not necessarily form a constituent part of the living mass,
together with particles which are rejected, and not capable
of being animated ; and

3. Substances resulting from the changes ensuing in
particles which have arrived at the end of their period of
existence, and the compounds formed by the action of
oxygen upon these.

CENTRIFUGAL MOVEMENTS. 8'l

There can be no doubt that the smallest particle of
living matter is complex. It is impossible to conceive
the existence of a living particle of any simple substance
like iron, oxygen, nitrogen, &c. ; for living involves changes
in which several different elements take part. It seems
to me, therefore, that the term living atom cannot with
propriety be employed, seeing that living matter is of
complex composition, while the idea of an atom seems to
involve simplicity of constitution, if not indivisibility. The
whole question of the arrangement and form of the atoms
in living matter can at present only be discussed theoreti-
cally ; and I would now merely remark with reference to
this subject, that although all living particles are of complex
composition, many different elements may exist in very
different proportions in living matter; and that there is
reason to believe that the smallest particles of every kind of
living matter are spherical. It is not possible to see, with
the highest powers now made, particles which would in all
probability be demonstrable by more perfect glasses. But
there is reason to think that in any case we must fail to see
the actual particles, which are the seat of change, in con-
sequence of their extreme tenuity and transparency. The
further consideration of this question is of the deepest
interest; but from this point the inquiry assumes a too
purely speculative character for me to pursue it here, as I
am anxious not to diverge very far from the consideration
of phenomena which can be investigated by observation
and experiment. It seems however to me probable
that the wonderful changes occurring when inanimate
matter becomes living, which occur in living beings alone,

G

82 PROTOPLASM.

take place in the central part of the spherical particles of
germinal matter only. Discussions as to the nature of the
vital forces must, I think, therefore be confined to the con-
sideration of the changes which take place in those minute
living spherules of which there is reason to believe we can
only see some which are comparatively of large size, and
probably many series removed from their ultimate spherical
components.

Centrifugal Movement of Living Particles.

Movement takes place in the most minute living particles
in a direction from centre to circumference, while the inani-
mate matter which is about to become living passes in the
opposite direction ; or, in other words, the inanimate matter
passes into the centre of a particle which already lives,
becomes living, and then moves outwards. The flow of the
inanimate matter is centripetal, and the movement of the
living matter is centrifugal. But both sets of movements
are to be accounted for by the centrifugal tendency of the
living matter ; for it is obvious that as it thus tends to move
from a centre, a flow in the opposite direction must be
induced. Such tendency to move from a centre, it would
seem, must be due to a force very different from that which
controls the movements of inanimate matter. Moreover,
while cosmical force influences masses of the largest magni-
tude and of infinite minuteness, through varying distance, the
vital forces can only exert their sway when the distance is
infinitely slight ; and it would seem that this influence can
only affect matter which is brought into the very centre of
the living particle.

AL TERA TION IN VITAL PO WER. 8 3

A Iteration in Vital Power.

It is remarkable that the results of the act of living in
different masses of germinal matter having the same origin
should be very different. And in the development of new
centres one within the other, the masses last produced seem
to have acquired powers which their progenitors did not
possess. In the formation of the ovum itself the produc-
tion of centre within centre proceeds for a long time before
the actual mass from which the new being is to be evolved
is produced. On the other hand, thousands of masses
of germinal matter are formed during the early periods of
development, which apparently only serve the purpose of
giving origin within themselves to others from which those
which are to take part in the formation of tissues are at
length developed. Thus, many successive series of masses
of germinal matter are formed, and are succeeded by new
ones before those by which the tissue or organ is to be
formed are produced. And these result from the develop-
ment of new centres or nuclei within already existing
living matter. Each successive series of nuclei seems to
acquire new power, although there are no characters by
which it could be distinguished from any pre-existing or suc-
ceeding series. That there is a difference is, however,
proved by the difference in the results of living. Moreover,
at the same time that the new centre acquires new powers,
it retains by inheritance some of those possessed by the
germinal matter that preceded it, and hands these down to
the new centres it originates. It would, therefore, appear
more in accordance with the facts to conclude that the

G 2

84 PROTOPLASM.

powers exhibited by the last of a series of masses of germinal
matter were somehow retained in relation with- the matter
of every one of its predecessors, and thus handed down
from generation to generation, than to assume that the new
powers were acquired in consequence of the different series
being successively exposed to different external conditions.
But this last view is really untenable, because we have
abundant evidence of the transmission of peculiar pro-
perties and powers, through a vast number of successive
units during a considerable period of time, and though
sometimes dormant for a while, they are yet at last mani-
fested so distinctly that no doubt could be entertained as
to their actual transmission from particle to particle.

New Centres not formed by Aggregation.

It cannot be supposed that the new centres of living
matter are in any way formed by the aggregation of particles
derived from distant parts j for, if this were so, these living
particles must have traversed formed material, and passed
to the very centre of the living germinal matter. But we
have ample evidence to prove that the movement of living
particles is in one direction only, from and not towards
centres. Moreover, there is reason to think that the only
matter passing towards centres is dissolved non-living
pabulum, and if living particles were suspended in this, they
would be filtered off by the formed material, and would never
reach the living matter. The arrangement is such as to
permit fluid only to go to the living matter, and check the
passage of all insoluble particles of whatever kind. While,
if we admitted as possible the aggregation of millions of

INCREASED VITAL ACTION. 85

particles having different properties and powers, we should
still be quite unable to explain how it is that they did
not interfere with one another's interests ; why, for instance,
the most vigorous did not grow at the expense of their
weaker brethren, starving them by appropriating their
pabulum, destroying them utterly, and occupying the space
which they had not the strength to retain.

Increased A ction.

Increase in formative and constructive power seems to
be associated with the most limited change in germinal
matter, while rapid change — increased vital action — seems
to be invariably connected with decadence in power. How
can such phenomena be in any way due to the influence
of the ordinary forces associated with lifeless matter ? No
form or mode of force yet discovered has been known
to act in any way at all analogous to this. The results
must, therefore, be attributed to some peculiar power
capable of controlling and directing both matter and
force.

It has been suggested that the different substances and
different structures produced by germinal matter at different
periods of development may depend upon the different
surrounding conditions present when the changes occur.
This, however, is no explanation at all, for the surrounding
conditions to which a mass of living matter in a growing
organism is exposed, as well as the circumstances con-
cerned in the production of these, are complex. They are
not simple external conditions, but are in part the result of
external circumstances, and in part of a previous state of

86 PROTOPLASM.

things in the establishment of which pre-existing vital
powers, associated with germinal matter, played no unim-
portant part. It has been shown that the production of
formed matter is due to the death of living matter under
certain conditions, which is itself a highly complex phe-
nomenon, and cannot be explained without supposing —

1. Certain internal forces capable of causing the elements
of the matter to arrange themselves in a certain definite
manner totally different from that in which the ordinary forces
of matter would cause these elements to be arranged ; and

2. Certain influences operating from without (i.e., surround-
ing external conditions) tending to prevent the supposed
internal forces from exerting their sway. The composition,
structure and properties of the matter produced, must, it
seems to me, be referred to the influence of very different
antagonistic forces acting upon matter in opposite direc-
tions. All this, which takes place in all living particles,
seems very different from anything going on in non-living
matter.

Hypothesis of Vital Force.

It seems to me that the facts cannot be accounted for
except on the hypothesis of the existence of some force or
power which influences, in a manner we do not yet under-
stand, the ultimate elements of matter, and causes them to
take up particular relations to one another so that when
they combine, compounds of a special kind, and possessing
special characters, shall be formed. For, surely it cannot be
maintained that the atoms arrange themselves, and devise
what positions each is to take up, — and it would be yet

VITAL POWER. 87

more extravagant to attribute to ordinary force or energy,
atomic rule and directive agency. We might as well try to
make ourselves believe that the laboratory fire made and
lighted itself, that the chemical compounds put themselves
into the crucible, and the solutions betook themselves to
the beakers in the proper order, and in the exact propor-
tions required to form certain definite compounds. But
while all will agree that it is absurd to ignore the chemist in
the laboratory, many insist upon ignoring the presence of
anything representing the chemist in the living matter which
they call the "cell-laboratory." In the one case the chemist
works and guides, but in the other.it is maintained, the life-
less molecules of matter are themselves the active agents in
developing vital phenomena.

Some have taught that mind transcends life, and life
transcends chemistry, just as chemical affinity transcends
mechanics. But no one has proved, and no one can prove,
that mind and life are in any way related to chemistry and
mechanics. If the step from mechanics to chemistry is
known, has been proved, and is admitted, that from chemistry
to life is assumed, and assumed without the slightest
reason. If it had been shown that there was some sort of
relation between A and B, and another sort of relation
between C D, would any one venture to argue that, there-
fore, B and C must be related ? Neither can it be said that
life works with physical and chemical forces, for there is no
evidence that this is so. On the other hand it is quite
certain that life overcomes, in some very remarkable and
unknown manner, the influence of physical forces and
chemical affinities. Does the tree grow away from the

83 PROTOPLASM.

earth or its roots into it, in obedience to the laws of gravi-
tation ? Are certain things taken up from the soil and
others rejected, or do the leaf cells tear away from carbonic
acid its carbon, and drive off its oxygen by reason of
chemical affinity ? Of course, it will be said that capillary
attraction, osmose and other forces, contribute in a highly
complex manner to bring about the results; but every one
at all acquainted with the subject knows, that the facts have
not been, and cannot be explained. Such questions are
usually evaded by those who profess to explain them.
I ask for one single instance in which the phenomena
actually occurring in any living thing, or in a particle of
living matter, can be adequately explained by physics and
chemistry. The only answer I get is, that if the pheno
mena cannot be explained now, it is certain they will be at
no very distant period. One must, however, acquire pro-
digious physical faith before one can hope to believe that
prophetic physics and chemistry are as worthy of accept-
ance and as convincing to the reason as facts of observation
and experiment.

If the explanation of the facts by calling in the aid of
some agency, force, or power totally distinct from ordinary
force is unsatisfactory, is it not more unsatisfactory, nay, is
it not even false, to attribute them to the action of the
ordinary cosmical forces, concerning which much is known,
but which have never been proved to be capable of effect-
ing any changes at all like those which occur in every kind
of living matter ?

And it would surely be more in accordance with the
true spirit of science, at least while our knowledge remains

VITALITY.

89

very imperfect, to study still more carefully the phenomena
of the simplest known forms of living matter than to affirm
boastingly, that not only these phenomena but those mani-
fested by the highest form living matter is known to
take, undoubtedly, result from the influence of mere force
which never made a brick or formed a wheel, but yet is
held capable of constructing those most wonderful and most
beautiful mechanisms which could never have been con-
ceived by the most vivid imagination, but which are being
revealed to us in new multitudes day by day in glorious
perfection. Surely, these no more result from the fortuitous
or force-impelled aggregation of atoms than pictures, statues,
mills, or ships do.

If, then, we take a general survey of the phenomena
peculiar to living things, I think we shall find ourselves
compelled by the facts to accept some such inferences as
the following :-

In all living beings there exists matter in a peculiar
state which we call living. This living matter manifests
phenomena which are different from any phenomena proved
to be due to the operation of any known laws. It moves in
a manner which cannot be explained by physics. Changes
are effected in its composition which cannot be accounted
for, and various substances are formed by it which may
exhibit structure, properties, and a capacity for acting in a
manner which is peculiar to living beings, and cannot be
imitated artificially or satisfactorily explained. It takes
up non-living matter in solution, and communicates its
wonderful properties to it. Having increased to a certain

9o

PROTOPLASM.

size, the mass of living matter divides into smaller portions,
every one of which possesses the same properties as the
the parent mass, and in equal degree.

Scientific investigators have hitherto failed to discover
any laws by which these facts may be accounted for. But
rather than ignore or misrepresent them, or affirm anything
concerning them which we cannot prove, as some have
done, it seems to me preferable to resort provisionally to
hypothesis. In order to account for the facts, I conceive
that some directing agency of a kind peculiar to the living
world exists in association with every particle of living
matter, which, in some hitherto unexplained manner, affects
temporarily its elements, and determines the precise changes
which are to take place when the living matter again comes
under the influence of certain external conditions.

In higher animals, besides giving rise to the phenomena
above referred to every instant during life in every part of
the organism, this supposed agency or power, acting under
certain circumstances at an early period of development, so
disposes the material which it governs, that mechanisms
result of most wonderful structure, admirably adapted, as
they have been evidently actually designed, for the fulfilment
of definite purposes. These mechanisms were anticipated,
as it were, from the earliest period, and their formation
provided for by the preparatory changes through which the
structures had to pass before perfect development could be
attained. Can these phenomena be accounted for except
through the influence of some wonderful power or agency
such as we are now contemplating?

Of all organic mechanism, the most perfect, the most
exalted, and as regards mere structure the most elaborate,

VITAL POWER.

is the nervous. Widely diffused, intimately concerned in
the actions going on in various tissues, and co-extensive
with most of these, it sends filaments to the very confines
of the organism. Through this mechanism alone, the very
last to be perfected, external changes affect the peculiar
form of living matter with which it is in the closest relation,
and are thus rendered evident to the living being. The
changes occurring in the central living matter of the
nervous apparatus may give rise to secondary, combined,
and complex actions, through which various ends may be
accomplished. These internal impulses are themselves the
movements of the particles of the living matter induced by
the supposed vital power or agency acting upon them.

In animals yet higher in the scale of creation, the
nervous mechanism through which alone the vital power
influences other tissues, so as to give rise to associated and
combined acts, is still more perfect and elaborate ; but it is
formed according to and acts upon the same principles.
Actions most complex are carried out through the influence
of what is ordinarily termed will. This is essentially related
to life itself, and probably is the vital force or power of
certain kinds of living matter. But it must not be supposed
that vital phenomena are due to will alone, for in all cases
these occur long before there are any manifestations of will,
as the term is ordinarily understood, — indeed, before the
tissues through which alone will operates have been de-
veloped. At all periods of life there are tissues which live
and grow independent of the influence of will. Neither
can instinct nor mind be regarded as life, although I think
these, as well as will, are forms of vital power.

In man there seems to be seated in and limited to

92 PROTOPLASM.

a special part of his nervous mechanism, a still higher and
more wonderful power, influencing a very special and easily
destructible living matter. By virtue of this power man
alone, of all created beings, is impelled to seek for the
causes of the phenomena he observes, and is enabled
to devise new arrangements of material substances for his
own definite purposes, and in a manner in which these sub-
stances were never arranged before, and in which it is not
conceivable they could be arranged without man's design
and agency. The power supposed .totally distinct from any
forces or properties of which we are cognizant, and not in
any way correlated with any known forms or modes of force
of which we have any experience, — exerts its sway upon any
definite portion of matter, during varying but usually only
very brief periods of time, often momentarily, and is then
transferred to, or passes on, and influences new particles.
From these the powers are transmitted to others, and so
on. The amount of matter influenced at any one moment
being greater in some situations than in others, and varying
according to a number of circumstances. In relation with
the delicate living matter, seated near the surface of the grey
matter of the convolutions of man's brain, which is alone
concerned in mental action, I conceive that vital power
attains its most exalted form. It seems to be temporarily
chained, as it were, to this matter, which it acts upon, and
through which alone it can make itself evident ; but seeing
that all forms of vital power are transferable, surely there
is nothing contrary to reason in supposing that at least this,
the highest form, may be freed from the material, and yet
exist without cessation, extinction, or annihilation.

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Injecting Fluid — Injecting Mollusca, Insects, &c.

VIII. Of the use of Chemical Reagents in Microscopical Investigation —
Fallacies to be guarded against — Presence of Extraneous Substances.

IX. Of taking Photographs of Objects.

X. New method of pi'eparing all Tissues for Microscopical Investigation.
XI. On the use of very high Magnifying Powers.
XII. Of making and recording Microscopical Observations.

Tables for practising the use of the Microscope and Manipulation.
Apparatus required in Microscopical Investigation.
Microscope Makers, Preparers of Specimens, Artists, Printers, Litho-
graphers, &c.

" The Author, both in the text and in the explanations to the engra-
vings, has endeavoured to restrict himself, as far as possible, to giving hints
and directions which may be practically useful to the student while he is at
work." — Extract from the Preface.

HARBISON PALL MALL.

Recently Published,

I.— ON THE STRUCTURE AND FORMATION OF
CERTAIN NERVOUS CENTRES,

Tending to prove that the Cells and Fibres of every Nervous Apparatus form

an uninterrupted Circuit.

Quarto, 8 Plates, containing 46 Figures, 5s.

II.— INDICATIONS OF THE PATHS TAKEN BY
THE NERVE CURRENTS

As they traverse the Caudate Nerve Cells of the Cord and Encephalon.

One Plate and 4 Figures, Is. 6d.

NEW WORKS PREPARING,

ON THE GERMINAL OR LIVING MATTER OF
THE TISSUES AND FLUIDS OF LIVING BEINGS,

An introduction to the Study of Physiology and Medicine.

Being the First Course of Lectures delivered at Oxford by direction of

the Eadcliffe Trustees.

DISEASE; ITS NATURE & TREATMENT,

INCLUDING

NEW KESEAKCHES ON INFLAMMATION AND FEVEE, AND
ON THE NATURE OF CONTAGrlUM,

With Observations on the Cattle Plague and on Cholera. Numerous

Plates.

Preparing for Publication, uniform with " Kidney Diseases, Urinary Deposits,
and Calculous Disorders" and the " Microscope in Medicine."

THE DISEASES OF THE LIVER AND THEIR

TREATMENT.

Including the Anatomy of the Organ in Man and Vertebrate Animals. With

upwards of 50 Plates of original Drawings, being a second edition

of the Author's Work on the Liver.

JOHN CHUECHILL AND SONS.

All these Works contain the results of the Author' s original investigations.
They are illustrated with upivards of 2,000 new Engravings, all carefully
copied from the actual objects, and most of which have been drawn on wood by
the Author himself.

HARRISON AND SONS, PR1NTEBS IN ORDINARY TO HER MAJESTY, ST. MARTIN'S LANE.