THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND 
 MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID 
 
PROTOPLASM ; 
 
 OR, 
 
 Life, Matter, and Mind. 
 
ARISTOPH. Aves, 686. 
 
PROTOPLASM ; 
 
 OR, 
 
 LIFE, MATTER, AND MIND. 
 
 BY 
 
 LIONEL S. BEALE, M.B., F.R.S, 
 
 Fellow of the Royal College of Phyfidans ; Phyfician to King's College Hofpltal. 
 
 NUMEROUS COLOURED DRAWINGS, EXECUTED ON WOOD, AND COPIED 
 FROM THE OBJECTS THEMSELVES. 
 
 SECOND EDITION, 
 
 REVISED AND MUCH ENLARGED. 
 
 LONDON: 
 J. CHURCHILL & SONS, NEW BURLINGTON STREET. 
 
 1870. 
 [All Rights reserved.} 
 
B3 1 
 
 TO THE READER. 
 
 THE nature of the changes which occur in matter 
 that is alive has always excited great interest ; 
 it is a question which arrests the attention of all 
 educated persons, as well as of those who make the 
 pursuit and advancement of natural science their life 
 work. 
 
 The enquiry is necessarily brought under the 
 attention of every student of medicine, and it is 
 natural that physicians who have time and oppor- 
 tunity, should be led to investigate deeply some of 
 its ramifications. The minute structure and action 
 of the tissues and organs of living beings, in health 
 and disease, early attracted my notice. It is a study 
 which has had a rare charm for me from boyhood, 
 and for upwards of twenty years I have been dili- 
 gently engaged in original research as well as in 
 public teaching in this particular department of 
 science. Some of the observations I have made 
 are recorded in this work. I have avoided the use of 
 technical terms, and have tried to say what I have to 
 say in the simplest manner. To save lengthy descrip- 
 tions a few drawings of some of the specimens upon 
 
vi TO THE READER, 
 
 which my observations were made have been added 
 with explanations of the points which these are in- 
 tended to illustrate. 
 
 My views upon the nature of vital actions are at 
 variance with the doctrines now generally entertained 
 and taught. I am therefore very desirous that those 
 interested in the subject should have in small com- 
 pass the general statement of the facts as they 
 appear to me. It is to be regretted that upon the 
 most elementary propositions connected with this 
 enquiry opinions are sadly conflicting, and many of 
 the facts and statements upon which they are based 
 and which are urged in their behalf are quite irrecon- 
 cileable with one another. It is therefore very dim- 
 cult for readers to form an impartial judgment. But I 
 trust it is not too much to ask that the observations 
 which have led me to the views I entertain, should be 
 brought under the notice of those who have not yet 
 subscribed to the doctrine that living things are mere 
 machines built up by physical forces only, and made 
 to act by force alone. 
 
 Intense energy and activity are displayed by 
 certain members of the new school in giving publicity 
 to their views ; they press them in many different 
 forms, and endeavour to enforce the acceptance of 
 the physical doctrine of life, and much besides which 
 it is supposed to include, with all the proverbial ardour 
 and authority of prophets. All this renders it very 
 desirable that every one who is engaged in actually 
 investigating a matter of such deep general interest, 
 
TO THE READER. vii 
 
 should do his utmost to make the conclusions at 
 which he arrives intelligible, without affectation of 
 learning, without mystery, and without in any way 
 exaggerating the importance of what he may have 
 to communicate. For the public may reasonably 
 desire some calm statement of proved facts in a matter 
 of such importance. It should be the writer's en- 
 deavour to tell his story simply, so that those who 
 wish may learn, and to take pains to make the facts 
 as clear to other minds as they appear to his own, 
 without trying to amaze by calling in the aid of 
 startling similes and striking illustrations which but 
 too often divert the attention from the real matter 
 under consideration, and are calculated to distract 
 the mind and prejudice the judgment. 
 
 In this edition I have introduced a new section on 
 the Mind. The views now published in a connected 
 form for the first time, were put forth in my lectures 
 delivered by direction of the .Radcliffe Trustees, at 
 Oxford during the Michaelmas term of last year, 
 reported in the " Medical Times " and " Gazette," and 
 less systematically in my physiological lectures de- 
 livered at King's College, London, during the winter 
 sessions 1863 to 1869. 
 
 6 1 , Grosvenor Street ; 
 Christmas, 1869. 
 
* # * 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. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 I. PHYSICAL LIFE AND ITS BASIS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Introduction ... ... .., ... ... ... ... ... I 
 
 Professor Owen's New Views ... ... ... ... ... ... 5 
 
 Note on Ciliary Action ... ... ... ... ... ... 7 
 
 Mr. Grove on Experimental Organism ... ... ... ... 9 
 
 The term "Protoplasm" II 
 
 Huxley's " Endoplast" and "Periplastic Substance" 13 
 
 Protoplasm the Physical Basis of Life ... ... ... ... 16 
 
 Bathybius of Huxley ... 22 
 
 Dr. Wallich's Observations ... ... ... ... ... ... 24 
 
 Chemistry of Protoplasm ... ... ... ... ... ... 25 
 
 Properties of Matter ... ... ... ... .. ... ... 27 
 
 A quosity and Vitality ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 28 
 
 Summary of the Things included under " Protoplasm" ... ... 29 
 
 II. GERMINAL, OR LIVING MATTER, AND 
 FORMED MATTER. 
 
 Nothing that Lives is Alive in every Part ... .. ... ... 33 
 
 Germinal Matter and Formed Material ... ... ... ... 35 
 
 The Terms Living and Formed Matter and Pabulum ... ... 37 
 
 General Characters of Germinal Matter ... ... ... ... 38 
 
 Amoeba... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 39 
 
 On Vital Movements 40 
 
 Mucus Corpuscle ... . 42 
 
 Of New Centres Nuclei and Nucleoli 45 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Of the Production of formed Material ... ... ... ... 49 
 
 Of the So-called Intercellular Substance ... ... 52 
 
 Of the Formation of the Contractile Tissue of Muscle ... ... 54 
 
 The Formation of Nerve Fibres ... ,.. ... 55 
 
 What is Essential to the Cell 55 
 
 Cells are not like Bricks in a Wall ... ... ... ... ... 56 
 
 On the Nutrition of a Living Cell .. ... ... ... ... 57 
 
 Of the Increase of Cells ... 58 
 
 Of the Changes of the Cell in Disease ... ... ... ... 59 
 
 Effects of Treatment ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 64 
 
 III. OF LIFE. 
 
 What is to be understood by the term ? ... ... ... ... 61 
 
 Non-living Particles of Matter contrasted with Living Particles ... 69 
 
 Spontaneous Generation ... ... ... ... ... ... 73 
 
 Structure of a Spore of Mildew ... ... ... ... ... 75 
 
 Is a Tissue " Living" because attached to a Living Organism ... 79 
 
 Chemical and Mechanical Changes in Living Beings ... ... 79 
 
 Actions in Living Beings ... ... ... ... ... ... 82 
 
 Force guided by Matter ... ... ... ... ... ... 83 
 
 Actions which characterize every kind of Living Matter, but which never 
 
 occur in any Form of Non-living Matter. 
 
 New Views concerning the Vital Processes of Growth and Nu- 
 trition ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 87 
 
 Germinal Matter and Formed Material of the Blood ... ... 96 
 
 Nature of the Material which Nourishes the Tissues ... ... 98 
 
 Peculiarity of the Nutritive Process... 101 
 
 Of Vitality. 
 
 Vitality not a Property of Matter ... ... ... ... ... 103 
 
 Point at which the Physical School tries to stop further Enquiry ... 107 
 
 Of a Living Spherule ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 109 
 
 Centrifugal Movement of Living Particles ... ... ... ...in 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. xi 
 
 PAGE 
 
 New Centres not formed by aggregation ... ... ... ...112 
 
 Alteration in Vital Power ... ... ... ... ... ... 113 
 
 Increased Action ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 114 
 
 Hypothesis of Vital Force ... ... ... ... ... ... 116 
 
 General Survey of the Phenomena of Living Beings ... ... 118 
 
 IV. OF MIND. 
 
 Of Nerve Action in general ... ... ... ... ... ... 123 
 
 Of the Nerve Current 126 
 
 Different kinds of Nerve Force ... ... ... ... ... 127 
 
 Of the Structure of Nerve Apparatus ... ... ... ... 129 
 
 Of Mental Ntrvoiis Action. 
 
 Of the Mechanism and its Formation ... ... ... ... 130 
 
 Are Mental Nervous Actions of the Nature of Reflex Actions ? ... 133 
 
 The Brain is not a Gland ... ... ... ... ... ... 136 
 
 Of Mind as a Function of the Brain ... ... ... ... ... 136 
 
 Of Mental as compared with Mechanical Action ... ... ... 140. 
 
 Of Thought as a Result of Chemical Action... ... ... ... 142 
 
 Is the Brain to be looked upon as a Voltaic Battery ? ... ... 143 
 
 On Expressing Thoughts ... ... ... ... ... ... 145 
 
 Of the Living Matter concerned in Mental Action. 
 
 Of the Germinal Matter taking part in Mental Operations ... ... 149 
 
 Difference between this and other kinds of Germinal Matter ... 150 
 
 Of the Order in which different kinds of Germinal Matter are 
 
 affected in Disease... ... ... ... ... ... ... 151 
 
 Origin of Germinal Matter ... ... ... ... ... ... 153 
 
 New Powers acquired in Development ... ... ... ... 154 
 
 Effects of Exercise ... ... ... ... ... 155 
 
 Of the Nature of Will, and of the Life of Germinal Matter taking 
 
 part in Mental Operations ... ... ... ... ... 156 
 
GERMINAL OH LIVING MATTER AND FORMED MATERIAL OF COMMON 
 
 MILDEW. 
 
 In this drawing the germinal or living matter of mildew duiing growth is represented. The figures 
 have been copied from specimens well stained by immersion in carmine fluid, a, spores 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, c, a spore bursting ; germinal matter escaping, d, a spore 
 enlarged by growth, e, a spore sprouting. /, an old spore, the formed material of which has b<-en 
 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 
 these changes the germinal matter only takes part. The formed material is perfectly passive, and 
 does not GROW. Magnified 17CO diameters. 
 
 lOOCth of an inch 
 
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 any of these, has been 
 ridiculed, 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. The 
 very positive affirmations made by some authorities, un- 
 supported as they are by well-demonstrated facts, almost 
 suggest to the reader a suspicion whether after all, the 
 writer himself believes the doctrine to which he has com- 
 mitted himself, and which he has determined to advocate 
 with all the force of his authority, and to the very utmost 
 of his power, to be really true. 
 
 It may be that facts recently discovered strongly support 
 
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 obser- 
 vation 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 denned. 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. 
 They do not attempt to 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 annihilation of force, when 
 
 B 2 
 
PROTOPLASM. 
 
 a living thing suddenly passes from the living into the 
 dead state ; but yet 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. 
 
LIPE OF A MAGNET. 
 
 PROFESSOR OWEN'S NEW VIEWS. 
 
 T)ROFESSOR OWEN has lately avowed his belief in 
 -L 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 difference 
 between the living state and the dead state is absolute, for 
 that which has once lost its life can never regain it. The 
 half-drowned man that can be revived has never been dead. 
 
 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 ? 
 
 * "The Monthly Microscopical Journal," No. V, May I, 1869, 
 p. 294. 
 
C I LIAR Y A CTION. 
 
 NOTE ON CILIARY ACTION. 
 
 In the case of ciliary action we have an example of a movement 
 which, though not strictly a vital movement, like that of the amoeba 
 (see p. 39), is really dependent upon changes which are a direct result 
 of vital phenomena. The cilium itself is not composed of living matter, 
 but its base is certainly in very intimate relation with matter that is 
 alive. The latter may indeed be actually prolonged into the base of 
 the cilium. The vibratile movement is probably due to an alteration 
 taking place in the tension of the fluid which pervades the tissue, 
 induced by the action of the living matter of the cell. The rate of 
 vibration varying according to the rapidity with which the living matter 
 of the cell absorbs nutrient substances, and undergoes conversion into 
 formed matter, or in other words, the rapidity with which the formation 
 of new living matter and the death of the old particles takes place. 
 When ciliary action ceases, we cannot, I think, say that each individual 
 cilium dies, for after all action has ceased a little alkaline fluid will 
 cause the cilium to vibrate again actively. We must not, therefore, 
 infer that the dying cilium has been revived or the dead cilium 
 revitalized by. the liquor potassse, for the fact seems rather to point to 
 the conclusion that the action of the cilium which occurs during life 
 is due to physical changes, and is not a vital action. 
 
 My friend, Dr. Rutherford, has suggested that the fact of the 
 cessation of movement at the base of the cilium, while the thin part 
 still continues to vibrate, might be advanced as an argument against 
 the views advocated by me in the following pages, and if the cilium 
 itself were composed of living matter, like the body of an amoeba, 
 such an objection would undoubtedly hold : but if, on the other 
 hand, the movement is physical, due to alterations in the currents 
 of fluid through the cell, we should expect that it would continue 
 longer at the apex than at the base, for the simple reason that 
 an impulse which would be sufficient to make the thin free part vibrate 
 freely would be insufficient to move the thicker portion attached to 
 the cell. We cannot say that the cilium dies from base to apex, 
 for the whole vibratile appendage is as destitute of life while it is yet 
 vibrating actively, as after it has ceased to move, and if we could only 
 make fluid flow through the cell after its death interruptedly in the same 
 
8 PROTOPLASM. 
 
 direction, and with the same force as it is made to flow during life by 
 the action of the living matter, ciliary movement would continue, 
 although the living matter of the cell was actually dead. It is most 
 important to distinguish between vital movements occurring in living 
 matter, and mechanical movements which result from alterations in 
 tension, the flow of currents, &c., consequent upon changes effected by 
 living matter. 
 
EXPERIMENTAL ORGANISM. 
 
 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 to 
 be 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 
 
 * "British Medical Journal," May 29, 1869, p. 486. 
 
10 PROTOPLASM. 
 
 a machine ; but everything that lives every so-called living 
 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. 
 
 Those who teach that life is the sum of all the actions going on in a 
 living body, forget that these actions are not all of the same kind. Of 
 some we know very much, but of the nature of others we know nothing. 
 In every living thing there are physico-chemical actions, which also occur 
 out of the body, and vital actions. These last are peculiar to living 
 beings, and cannot be imitated. In galvanic batteries, and in other 
 arrangements made by man, we may have physico-chemical actions, but 
 never anything at all like vital actions. Of course, authority may 
 decree that henceforth the terms " living galvanic battery" "vital 
 machine" " animated steam engine" shall be employed, and that a man 
 shall be called a "physico-chemical apparatus" or a " kynetic" or 
 "electric machine" but the nature of the things themselves could not be 
 changed in the least degree by authority, however much the names by 
 which they were known were altered. 
 
PROTOPLASM. 
 
 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 
 denned 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 
 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 
 
! 2 PROTOPLASM. 
 
 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 
 being rilled 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 
 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, 
 
ENDOPLAST AND PERI PL AST. 13 
 
 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- 
 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 has felt 
 that certain changes must be made. So the vacuoles of his 
 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 
 * "The Cell Theory," " Med. Chir. Rev.," October, 1853. 
 
I 4 PROTOPLASM. 
 
 periplastic substance was formed. Next he may discover 
 that the endoplast is of the highest importance instead of 
 no importance at all, and then there is 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 ; and this property 
 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- 
 
KINDS OF PROTOPLASM. 
 
 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, white 
 blood-corpuscle, &c., grows. It 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 with 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 j the last with a spring 
 which can only uncoil itself after it has been wound up. 
 
 Further, the term protoplasm has not been applied only 
 to the matter of which the amoeba, the sarcode of the fora- 
 aninifera, &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 composed 4 it possesses properties 
 
PROTOPLASM. 
 
 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 the 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 circum- 
 stances," 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 seems to think he can annihilate distinctions, 
 enforce identity, and sweep away the difficulties which 
 have impeded the progress of previous philosophers in 
 
 * The iron basis of the candle, and the basis of the iron candle are 
 expressions evidently interchangeable. 
 
PHYSICAL BASIS GF LIFE. 
 
 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 
 influences" the one thing might be easily converted into the 
 other, and not by such nonsensical fictions as "vitality," 
 which can neither be weighed, measured, nor conceived.* 
 
 * But this is not the first time Mr. Huxley has indulged in adroit 
 word-tricks and inapposite illustrations. After referring to the 
 anatomy of the horse, he says, in his "Lectures to Working Men," 
 page II : "Hitherto we have, as it were, been looking at a steam- 
 engine with the fires out, and nothing in the boiler ( ! ) but the body of 
 the living animal is a beautifully-formed machine" And it would be 
 easy to point out in many of his writings, vague remarks of the same 
 sort with similes, calculated rather to mislead than to assist the judgment 
 of students. Take, for example, his far-fetched observations in the first 
 number of the "Academy," page 13, about the kitchen clock, which 
 cries "cuckoo," and shows the phases of the moon, and the death- 
 watch machine, "a learned and intelligent student of its works," ticking 
 like the clock in the clock case. We are told to "substitute 'cosmic 
 vapour ' for ' clock, ' and ' molecules ' for ' works, ' and the application 
 of the argument is obvious." (!) The argument relates to the "forces 
 possessed by the molecules of which the primitive nebulosity of the 
 universe was composed," by the mutual interaction of which forces the 
 whole world living and not living has resulted. " If this be true" (doubt- 
 fully suggests the Professor) " it is no less certain that the existing world 
 lay, potientially, in the cosmic vapour ; and that a sufficient intelligence 
 could, from a knowledge of the properties of the molecules of that 
 vapour, have predicted, say the state of the Fauna of Britain in 1869, 
 with as much certainty as one can say what will happen to the vapour 
 of the breath in a cold winter's day.". (!) These remarks are printed 
 under the heading "SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY." 
 
 C 
 
r i8 PROTOPLASM. 
 
 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, and many are unable to accept argu- 
 ments 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 Physical Basis of Life," published in the " Fort- 
 nightly Review", February ist, 1869. 
 
 Up to this time all observers have agreed in opinion 
 that the cell or elementary part of the fully-formed organism 
 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 is quite incompatible with many facts, 
 some of which have been alluded to by Mr. Huxley him- 
 self.* I doubt if in the whole range of modem science it 
 would be possible to find an assertion more at variance 
 with facts familiar to physiologists than the statement that 
 " beast and fowl, reptile and fish, mollusk, worm, and 
 
 * "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." 
 
HUXLETS PROTOPLASM. 
 
 polype," are composed of " masses of protoplasm with a 
 nucleus," unless it be that still more extravagant 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 
 passage, which certainly requires explanation. After stating 
 that the substance of a colourless blood-corpuscle is an 
 active mass of protoplasm, Mr. Huxley remarks that " iinder 
 sundry 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 
 
 c 2 * 
 
20 PROTOPLASM. 
 
 little of the other (living) matter, and 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 
 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 lirnb 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 
 
WHA T IS PRO TOPLASM ? 2 1 
 
 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, variously modified.* 
 
 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. t 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 of life 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 
 
 * The term "variously modified" perhaps includes the terms 
 living and dead } and, according to Mr. Huxley, expresses with sufficient 
 exactness the difference between the living and dead states. 
 
 + 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 not its 
 shell ? 
 
22 PROTOPLASM. 
 
 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 of 
 mere physics." He also remarked that "vitality is a pro- 
 perty inherent in certain kinds of matter." 
 
 Bathybius. I will now draw attention to a fanciful form 
 of marine protoplasm, supposed to be very widely extended 
 at great depths, which has been much discussed of late, and 
 concerning the nature of which much difference of opinion 
 is entertained. From the protoplasm of the amoeba and 
 certain forms of foraminifera. we pass, it is said, to larger 
 and more extended sheets of this substance, included under 
 the head of " urschleim," and constituting the organisms of 
 the simplest animated beings, which have been included 
 by Haeckel in the genus Moner. It would be wrong to omit 
 all mention of this subject, as it is very interesting and of 
 great importance, although I have not given much attention 
 to it. I shall therefore quote the observations of others so 
 far as they appear to me to bear upon the consideration 
 of the nature of protoplasm. 
 
 In the "Microscopical Journal" for October, 1868, is a 
 
BATHYBIUS. 23 
 
 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, embedded in a " transparent, colourless, and struc- 
 tureless matrix." The granules form heaps which are some- 
 times the To-Vo tn 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 
 the " granules," are said to bear the same relation to the 
 protoplasm of Bathybius 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, which have been ignored, although 
 the matrix is produced and the form of the spicula deter- 
 
 * The idea of the existence of huge continuous masses of living 
 matter of enormous extent, is most fanciful and improbable. It appears 
 to be 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 3^ 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. 67. 
 
24 PROTOPLASM. 
 
 mined by them. As in other cases, this matrix, with the 
 living matter included, constitutes " protoplasm." 
 
 Bathybius has been fancifully described as " a vast sheet 
 of living matter (!) enveloping the whole earth beneath the 
 seas," composed of molecules whose organizing tendencies 
 will be shown after the lapse of several thousand years in 
 the Fauna and Flora of the period of which the unscientific 
 cannot now form the remotest conception. But it is surely a 
 consoling thought, and one eminently calculated to confirm 
 our faith in the infallibility of the new philosophy, to re- 
 member the remarkable prophecy that the successful neo- 
 biologist is not only to render evident the wonderful proper- 
 ties now dormant in the existing Bathybius, but as soon as 
 he shall have succeeded in demonstrating to us the properties 
 of the molecules which once formed the primitive nebulosity, 
 he will be able to predict the exact state of the Fauna and 
 Flora of Middlesex in the year 5069, and with as much 
 certainty as he can now tell us what will happen if exactly 
 one thousand grains of proteid organic matter be exposed, 
 in an atmosphere of carbonic acid to a temperature of 25 
 during the space of two hours. 
 
 Dr. Wallictts Observations. Dr. Wallich has, it need 
 scarcely be said, 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, this observer, who has long been engaged in 
 this and kindred studies, states that the coccoliths and cocco- 
 spheres stand in no direct relation to the protoplasm sub- 
 stance referred to by Huxley under the name of Bathybius. 
 The former are derived from their parent coccospheres, 
 
DR. WALLICITS VIEWS. 25 
 
 which are independent structures altogether. " Bathybius" 
 instead of being a widely-extending sheet of living protoplasm 
 which grows at the expense of inorganic elements, is rather 
 to be regarded as a complex mass of slime with many 
 foreign bodies and the debris of living organisms which 
 have passed away. Numerous 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- 
 lospJmra, 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 protoplasm, embraces, i, the 
 chemistry of the formed matter, and 2, the chemistry of 
 the active, living, growing, matter, of an organism. By 
 chemical analysis we can ascertain the composition of the 
 first, and can learn many facts concerning its elementary 
 chemical characters; but it is obvious that chemistry can 
 teach us little with regard to the composition of the living 
 matter, for we kill it when we attempt to analyze it ; and 
 
26 PROTOPLASM. 
 
 in truth we analyze not the living matter, but the sub- 
 stances 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, 
 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 Haeckel 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- 
 
 * " In the last place, Mr. Huxley's analysis is an analysis of dead 
 protoplasm, and indecisive, consequently, for that which lives. Mr. 
 Huxley betrays sensitiveness in advance of this objection ; for he seeks 
 to rise above the sensitiveness and the objection at once by styling the 
 latter 'frivolous.'" "As regards Protoplasm in relation to Professor 
 Huxley's Essay on the Physical Basis of Life," by J. H. Stirling, 
 LL.D., F.R.C.S. Edinburgh, Blackwood and Sons, October, 1869. 
 
 f "The Principles of Psychology," p. 137. 
 
FORCE AND FORM. 27 
 
 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 ! " 
 
 "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 calcspar and amorphous carbonate of lime corre- 
 sponds 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, 
 
28 PROTOPLASM. 
 
 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. 
 
 Aquosity and Vitality. The properties possessed by in- 
 organic 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 
 
 * A hostile critic has discovered that there are at least two kinds, 
 dirty water and clean water ! 
 
VITAL PROPERTIES. 29 
 
 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 
 to the constituent elements, or to the properties of the 
 molecules of their tissues ? Do the properties of the 
 elements of dog differ sufficiently from those of the ele- 
 ments of man, to account for the differences between 
 dog and man. Have we not rather reason to infer an 
 approximation towards identity of composition in the living 
 matter, with marvellous difference in the results of the vital 
 actions ? How, then, can the differences be due to the 
 ordinary properties of the elements ? Wonderful properties 
 have indeed to be discovered in connection with elements 
 before we can refer the differences in property of living 
 beings compounded of them to the properties of the ele- 
 ments 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. 
 
 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 
 
30 PROTOPLASM. 
 
 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. 
 
 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. 
 
 It is therefore very difficult to see whit advantage is to 
 be gained by the use of the word " protoplasm." If we call 
 a cell a protoplasm, and an egg a protoplasm, and a sheep a 
 protoplasm, and a man a protoplasm, we do not therefore 
 get a clearer idea of any one of them than we had before, 
 while on the other hand the words cell, egg, sheep, man, are 
 distinctive, short, and generally understood. There would 
 be terrible risk of very different living things being con- 
 founded, if they were all called " protoplasms." 
 
 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 
 
PROPERTIES OF LIVING BEINGS. 
 
 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 molecule or cell in any organism. 
 
 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, perhaps, not 
 identical properties. These vital properties seem to be super- 
 added to matter temporarily, and are not, like the former, 
 
32 PROTOPLASM. 
 
 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 
 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. 
 
 " You may bury me as you choose, if you can only catch me. 
 But you will not understand me when I tell you that I, Socrates, 
 who am now speaking, shall not remain with you after having drunk 
 the poison, but shall depart to some of the enjoyments of the blest. 
 You must not talk about burying or burning Socrates, as if I were 
 suffering some terrible operation. Such language is inauspicious and 
 depressing to our minds. Keep up your courage and talk only of 
 burying the body of Socrates ; conduct the burial as you think best, 
 and most decent. "Plato, Phcedon, p. 115, C-D. ; Grate's Plato, 
 vol. //., p. 193. 
 
GERMINAL OR LINING MATTER, 
 AND FORMED MATTER. 
 
 )THING 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 some 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 
 
 D 
 
34 
 
 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 the 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 two states or conditions : 
 i. Living, active, formative ; 2. Lifeless, passive, formed. 
 In my preparations these two different forms of matter are 
 at once distinguished, the first being artificially coloured 
 with carmine, while the matter in the last condition remains 
 untinged. 
 
LIVING AND FORMED MATTER. 35 
 
 As investigation proceeded, I became more and more 
 convinced of the importance of the distinction I had drawn, 
 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. It was shown 
 that upon it all growth, multiplication, 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 unaltered. 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 remarkable 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 convert 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 -501)1 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 
 
 D 2 
 
3 6 PROTOPLASM. 
 
 matter like itself out of materials differing from it materially 
 in composition, properties, and powers. I therefore called it 
 germinal ox living matter, to distinguish it from Reformed ma- 
 terial, 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 passage from one state into the 
 other is sudden and abrupt, although there may be much 
 living matter mixed with 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 continue to exhibit its characteristic 
 
LIVING AND FORMED MATTER, AND PABULUM. 37 
 
 properties after the death of the germinal matter belonging 
 to it has occurred. 
 
 The terms Living Matter, Formed Matter, 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 continued to increase, 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 exist- 
 ing 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 denned 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. 
 
38 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 ascertained 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 extremity 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 
 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 and 
 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 
 base or bulb, pushing the firm and already formed tissue 
 
AMCEBA. 
 
 39 
 
 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 amceba, in the mucus- or in the white blood- 
 corpuscle from man's 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, 
 although it is darker and more granular in some parts than 
 
4 o 
 
 PROTOPLASM. 
 
 in others. The germinal matter of all organisms, and of 
 the tissues and organs of each organism, exhibits precisely 
 the same characters. It lives, 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 isolate, 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 dis- 
 covered, occurs in all directions, and seems to depend upon 
 changes in the matter itself, rather than upon impulses 
 communicated to the particles from without. 
 
 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 
 
VITAL MOVEMENTS. 41 
 
 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 100 1 ooTJ th of an inch in diameter, and yet 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 cease altogether. The 
 organism becomes spherical, and the trace of soft formed 
 material upon the surface increases until a firm protective 
 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 
 
42 PROTOPLASM. 
 
 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 mucus 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 j 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 
 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- 
 
PLATE II. 
 
 GERMINAL OR LIVING MATTER. 
 
 
 
 One of the living mucns corpr.KclP! 7'pprfsentPcl 
 in T''iii. 1, iTiai^nified by the g\T = '.'WXi diameters, 
 showing alterations in form during <>\\>* 
 
 us from tli- 3 trnrhon during life, 
 
 
 Very TTiimUe living am;i'l,rr>, mafinifiM COM 
 
 
 inute partirle of iprminal maltr-r from living 
 
 
 
 x asoo. 
 
 x -000. 
 
 a pae 43 
 
VITAL MOVEMENTS. 43 
 
 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 
 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 
 
44 PROTOPLASM. 
 
 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, 
 and in the hairs of the flower of Tradescantia ; and the 
 
 * See my paper "On Contractility as distinguished from purely 
 vital movements." "Trans. Mic. Soc." 1866. 
 
NEW LIVING CENTRES. 45 
 
 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 
 living beings, to seek for it in the "colourless, structureless, 1 ' 
 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 ap- 
 pearing 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 
 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 
 
46 PROTOPLASM. 
 
 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 nucleoli, 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 by 
 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 
 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 
 
PLATE 111. 
 
 OVA Ob' THE COMMON STICKLEBACK. 
 PRODUCTION OL 1 ' NEW LIVING CENTRES IN PRE-EXISTING LIVING MATTER. 
 
 varian ova undergoing <U:- 
 
 the midst of a 
 ed of cells. Magnified 6W 
 diameters. 
 
 U\ arian ovum, with large terrainal vesicle. 
 The yolk cracked and exhibiting fissures ra- 
 diating outwards. Magnified 100 diameters. 
 
 Fig. 9. 
 
 Wig. lo. 
 
 >. 11. 
 
 n:il spots, 
 centres within them, x 1 
 
 Germinal spots, with new centres (micleoh) 
 
 witljin them, and more mmut.- -_V ruiinal soots 
 
 in the interval." between th<;m. X 500." 
 
 ICOOth of an i 
 
 215. 
 
 
NEW LIVING CENTRES. 47 
 
 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 
 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 
 
4 8 PROTOPLASM. 
 
 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 
 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 amount, when it becomes a 
 very striking object. The ovum at an early period of its 
 
PLATE IV. 
 
 EPITHELIAL CELLS JROM MOUTH. GERMINAL OR LIVING MATTER, RED; 
 .FORMED MATERIAL, BLACK. SHOWING CHANGES DURING GROWTH. 
 
 h rough thick layer of epithelium covering the papillae of the tongue. sho\viu^ 
 
 the germ i te formed material ot each elementary unit or e^ll In the lower 
 
 part of tb ' Inch ara closest to the nutrient matter are seen. Here there are no 
 
 trepARATF CKIT.S, but the soft formed material forma a continuous mass. 'C'hese ;t: 
 c-!ls, ;ind are irmltipl \ in '; in number When the formed material i '-mid the 
 
 urm:n;i'. ! : 1:1011 ceaHes. As the cells :IM 
 
 the surface, c, to take the pla moved, the formed material becomes firna aud dry, and 
 
 the remains of the germinal matter die. Magnified 700 diameters. 
 
 of an me!; 
 
THE CELL, OR ELEMENTARY PART. 49 
 
 development is but a naked mass of germinal matter, with- 
 out a cell wall, but having a new centre and often numerous 
 new centres (known as germinal spots or nuclei) embedded 
 in it, enclosed in a capsule of formed material " cell wall."* 
 
 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. 
 
 On the Production of Formed Material. The processes 
 of growth and increase, as they occur in the tissues of all 
 
 * The cell wall (Huxley's "periplastic substance," regarded by him 
 as active and formative) is perfectly passive, while the germinal matter 
 (Huxley's endoplast of 1853, considered by him as unimportant) is 
 the really active and the only living matter of the cell. It is very 
 strange that Mr. Huxley should have so completely modified his views 
 upon this fundamental question, as he has done, without having offered 
 one word in explanation. 
 
50 PROTOPLASM. 
 
 fully-formed living beings, may be well studied in the simple 
 tissue which forms the external covering of the body, and 
 is prolonged in a modified form into the internal cavities. 
 If a thin section be made perpendicularly through this, 
 down to the tissue which contains the nerves and blood- 
 vessels upon which it rests, the appearances 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, <:, 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, fr, 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 
 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 
 
PLATE V. 
 
 , , : SHOWING FORMED MATERIAL IN THE 
 V1VELY AND THE MODE OF ITS FORMATION. 
 
 Fig. 14. 
 
 layer of the conjunctiva 
 iviiring the front of the eye) of a girl, 
 - outiuuous and not yet sept. 
 corresponding to each mass of germinal 
 there are no sej arate c-lla. X i'OO. 
 
 
 Superficial or older cells, from the 
 same specimen as Fig. 13, showing 
 formed material belonging to each 
 mass of germinal matter, giving rise 
 to the appearance of separate cells. 
 X 500. 
 
 'i-^v- jv. 
 
 mum) of a young newt, showing masses of germinal matter 
 
 some of which are dividing, at a, b, c : with form . hich is continuous throughout as 
 
 in young ..-pilhclmm. Figs. 13, at ,/, Fig. U*. p ol 
 
FORMED MA TERIAL. 5 1 
 
 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 
 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 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. 
 
 2 
 
52 PROTOPLASM. 
 
 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 repre- 
 sented in PL IV, p. 48, which should be carefully studied. 
 
 Of the 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 epi- 
 thelium, but the formed material throughout the entire 
 tissue forms an uninterrupted mass of tissue, matrix, or, as 
 it has been termed, connective substance. (PI. V, fig. 15). 
 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 
 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- 
 
PLATE VI. 
 CARTILAGE SHOWING MODE OF PRODUCTION OF FORMED MATERIAL. 
 
 I-ig. 16. _ Flg , Yl. 
 
 
 ocyfiEj 
 
 Cartilage., frog ; showing germinal i 
 formed material, x 700. 
 
 :::::::: .;; liiLliiilir .:: ,:;;; \-\^..^-.~~ :: i^susiia 
 ig rartilage, kitten, showing tlie CON- 
 
 
 Fig. 19. 
 
 '<-: at different :\ ' 9. At\ ".attirth; 
 
 6. six weeks old ; c, nearly full grown ; d, adult 
 
 cat. x 'J15. Showing alteration in the lelative 
 
 proportions of germinal matter and formed 
 
 material at different ages 
 
 .' '-i-ninal m; 
 
 ilage inti 
 
 page 6-2 
 
INTERCELLULAR SUBSTANCE. 
 
 53 
 
 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 is given. The spe- 
 cimen 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 
 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. 
 
54 PROTOPLASM. 
 
 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. T 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- 
 nected with it, showing that, as in tendon, the germinal 
 matter passes uninterruptedly into the formed material. 
 This contractile tissue is not, like the germinal matter 
 which produced it, in a living state. In the formation 
 of the contractile tissue, the germinal matter seems to 
 move onwards, and at its posterior part gradually under- 
 
WHAT IS A CELL? 
 
 55 
 
 goes conversion into the 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. 
 (PI. 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 con- 
 tinuous with the formed material of the nerve cells of the 
 nerve centres. A nerve fibre at an early period of develop- 
 ment 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 non-living 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 state 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 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 
 
5 6 PROTOPLASM. 
 
 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 B 'ricks in a Wall. Cells forming a 
 tissue have been compared with bricks in a wall, but the 
 cells are not like bricks, they have not the same con- 
 stitution 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 
 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 
 
PL A'! 
 
 NUTRITION AND MOVEMENTS OF G5.RMJNAL MATTER. 
 6 
 
 supposed, pabulum, fl 
 i !>v the arrow* 
 
 iterial and passing into the gr- 
 eat formed rna: 
 c*, oldest portion ot 
 
 a. terminal matter: 
 ping in the direction 
 iversing the formed. 
 
 linaL matte 
 it produced ; 
 
 A minute particle of germinal matter 
 its component spherules of living ma 
 thin layer of so.'t formed, material on 
 undergoing change. 
 
 tier and 
 
 Fig. 25. 
 
 nal matter and formed material (contractile tissue) of muscle. The iermhial m 
 
 .: 111 the direction Of the arrow. Ir, ' = "~ v^t^,-, .. arwl /, V,ur. ITMH rnov f ><l from tht 
 
 11 the. direction of the arrow. Ir, is now between a. and b, 1 ed frcm U. 
 
 position between 6 and c and contractile tissue there seen has been fon 
 
 Fig. 26. 
 
 ellow elastic tissue from the lamb. The germinal matter is moviin; in thci 
 , and forming the yellow elastic tissue as it proceeds It ha* 1 en said that. 
 -,. but a grat ruiruber u; DO 
 specimena. 
 
 
 
 
NUTRITION OF A LIVING CELL. 57 
 
 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 Living Cell. In nutrition, the 
 active changes are exclusively confined to the germinal 
 matter. The formed material is passive, 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 
 
 * 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 ! 
 
5 8 PROTOPLASM. 
 
 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 of 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 #, 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. 
 
 The nature of the process of nutrition is more fully 
 discussed towards the end of the next section, " OF LIFE." 
 
 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. (PI. VIII.) 
 
 The formed material of the cell is perfectly passive in 
 
CHANGES IN THE CELL IN DISEASE. 59 
 
 the process of increase and multiplication. Even the 
 apparently very active contractile tissue of muscle has no 
 capacity for increase or formation. If soft or diffluent, a 
 portion of the formed material may collect around each of 
 the masses into which the germinal matter has divided, but 
 it does not grow in 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 the Changes in the Cell in Disease. I have en- 
 deavoured to show that of the different constituents of 
 the fully formed cell, the germinal matter is alone con- 
 cerned 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 
 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 
 
60 PROTOPLASM. 
 
 material around each mass. There is no structure through 
 which these soft living 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 
 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- 
 
PLATE VIII. 
 
 FROM THE NUTRITION OF HEALTH, TO THE INFLAMMATION O? 
 DISEASE. 
 
 * 
 
 The production of formed material from germinal matter in epithelial cells. See also Plate IV. 
 
 Fisf. 33. 
 ?ig. 30. Fie. 31. Fig. 32. 
 
 Rupturp of forr 
 
 [jcrmiLtiuA fre-. 
 
 pabuli 
 
 of.ger- 
 ol adult c-'-ii i 
 of pabulum. In this 
 foi-med 
 
 from the germinal matter of epi- 
 thelium. 
 
 Multiplication of pus corpuscles. 
 
 Fig 36. 
 
 
 
 
 
CELL IN DISEASE. 6 1 
 
 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. 
 
 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 
 
62 PROTOPLASM. 
 
 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 
 epithelial or other cell, or elementary part, the germinal 
 matter of which has been supplied with pahilum much 
 more freely than in the normal state. In all forms of in- 
 flammation, 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 proceed 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 
 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 
 
GERMINAL MATTER IN DISEASE. 63 
 
 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. 
 
 It is by this process of increased multiplication and 
 reproduction of certain kinds of germinal matter of the 
 organism, under altered conditions, that the germs which 
 constitute the material particles of contagious diseases 
 result. These living particles (contagium) having acquired 
 during multiplication new and peculiar properties not pos- 
 sessed by the germinal matter from which they originally 
 sprung, retain these properties and reproduce their kind a 
 million fold whenever placed under conditions favourable 
 to the process, though the operation may be fatal to the 
 organism in which it occurs. 
 
 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 
 
64 PROTOPLASM. 
 
 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 
 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, 
 
TREATMENT. 65 
 
 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, 
 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 j but it probably renders them less fluid, 
 and reduces their permeating property. It prevents the 
 growth and multiplication of germinal matter and probably 
 interferes with the multiplication of white blood corpuscles. 
 Alcohol also tends to prevent the disintegration of red 
 blood-corpuscles ; and in cases where this is going on very 
 rapidly, and where fluid is passing 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 
 
 F 
 
66 PROTOPLASM. 
 
 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. Potash, soda, lithia, and their car- 
 bonates, as well as the salts of many vegetable acids which 
 become converted into carbonates in the system, act bene- 
 ficially in this way, as well as by 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 
 life, 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 himself 
 might perish, 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 
 
 F 2 
 
68 LIFE. 
 
 totally different category. Physical and chemical actions 
 may be investigated in many ways, but as far as we can 
 judge, 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, as the sum of all 
 the actions going on in his body, as some are inclined 
 to do, 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. 
 
LIFELESS AND LIVING PARTICLES. 69 
 
 Non-living Particles of Matter contrasted with Living 
 Particles. It is desirable to consider in this place whether 
 anything may be learnt by comparing very minute lifeless 
 particles with very minute living particles under very high 
 magnifying powers. 
 
 A little inorganic matter of any kind, but in a state of 
 very minute subdivision may be subjected to examination. 
 Take for example a little of the deposit of phosphate of 
 lime which has been precipitated from a solution of a salt 
 of lime by the addition of a soluble salt of phosphoric acid. 
 Now what is observed when this fine precipitate is placed 
 under the microscope ? Only a number of minute granules 
 or dots possessing no definite form and exhibiting no indica- 
 tions of structure. If the deposit be examined by the 
 highest powers at our command, the apparent size of the 
 particles will indeed be increased, and others which were 
 previously invisible will be brought into view but no 
 appearance of structure can be recognized. Spots they 
 appeared under moderately high powers, and mere spots 
 they remain under the highest magnifying powers we can 
 obtain. Certain movements are however to be observed. 
 Each little particle revolves and oscillates in the fluid. 
 These movements have been termed molecular, and were 
 first described many years ago by Robert Brown. We know 
 that the particles under observation are inorganic, and we 
 are therefore quite sure that the movements we witness are 
 due to physical forces alone. 
 
 Next let us take a small fragment of dead animal or 
 vegetable matter, and place it in a few drops of pure water 
 on a glass slide, and examine carefully the fluid under the 
 
70 LIFE. 
 
 microscope. The water appears as clear "and transparent 
 as the glass on which it rests. Both slides may now be 
 placed in a warm room under the same conditions for a few 
 hours, taking care that light and air have free access to both 
 specimens, and that any fluid lost by evaporation be sup- 
 plied. At the end of five or six hours the slides may again 
 be examined. 
 
 The one containing the inorganic deposit of phosphate 
 of lime shall be called A. No change has taken place. 
 There are the little lifeless particles still moving as before 
 in the fluid in which they are suspended. Some of them 
 indeed may have become aggregated together so as to form 
 little collections, but beyond this there appears to have been 
 no change. 
 
 Next let the other slide B be examined. The fluid which, 
 when first seen, was perfectly clear, now contains a number 
 of exceedingly minute dots, points, or granules, closely 
 resembling those of the phosphate of lime, and these mani- 
 fest similar molecular movements. If a little gum, glycerine, 
 or any viscid material be added to the particles on each 
 slide, the molecular movements are immediately suspended, 
 and if the fluid be diluted they recur. This indicates that 
 in both cases the movements are due to physical causes. 
 The little particles which could move freely in such a limpid 
 fluid as water, are prevented from moving if the fluid in 
 which they are suspended be rendered viscid. 
 
 Let both slides be again set aside for a few hours longer. 
 It will be found that the inorganic matter upon the slide A 
 has undergone no change. But the case is very different 
 with regard to B. The granules that have appeared in the 
 
LIVING PARTICLES. 71 
 
 fluid, -precipitated as some would say have increased 
 vastly in number. Many of them have become altered, or 
 their place has been taken by little bodies, some of which 
 have a circular while others exhibit an elongated oval form ; 
 all are perfectly transparent. If, again another interval of time 
 be permitted to elapse, and the slide B is again examined, 
 it will be found that further change has taken place. The 
 little bodies have become larger ; in fact they have grown, 
 and have moreover increased considerably in number. The 
 growth has not resulted from the aggregation and fusion of 
 several particles, as some have surmised, but individual par- 
 ticles have increased in size without absorbing their neigh- 
 bours. Careful study will now convince the observer that 
 in the case of the largest particles, the central portion differs 
 from the external covering ; in fact each particle is com- 
 posed of at least two kinds of matter, or matter in two dif- 
 ferent states. 
 
 The changes described are characteristic of living par- 
 ticles. Repeated experiments have proved that the con- 
 ditions under which slide B was placed were favourable to 
 the developement of certain simple living organisms. At a 
 certain period the granules on the two slides were scarcely to 
 be distinguished ; but while those on A remained unaltered 
 retained the same granular form in which they were deposited 
 the particles on B have not been stationary for a moment. 
 They have grown into definite though apparently simple 
 forms of matter, which still continue to manifest active 
 changes. In all cases life is associated with never-ceasing 
 change. 
 
 Now, the question arises, whence have the living 
 
72 LIFE. 
 
 organisms been derived ? The water which was examined 
 at first appeared perfectly clear, but now it is filled with 
 living beings. How did they come there? It has been 
 stated that simple organisms such as these may spring up 
 spontaneously; but this statement may be met by very 
 serious objections, if, indeed, it is not contradicted by facts 
 open to the observation of all. The doctrine of spontaneous 
 generation has again quite recently been revived in France, 
 and of course has been again refuted by an overwhelming 
 mass of evidence. It has been proved that if dead animal or 
 vegetable matter be dried, and so placed that the admission of 
 atmospheric air which has passed through strong sulphuric 
 acid or liquor potassae is alone admitted, organisms will 
 nevertheless appear, and all those phenomena which we 
 have already observed will ensue. The minute germs which 
 were protected in the interstices of the vegetable matter 
 become developed into organisms resembling those from 
 which they were derived. It seems almost impossible to 
 destroy the germs without destroying the organic matter in 
 which they were embedded and by which they may have 
 been protected even from the destructive influence of boil- 
 ing water. 
 
 Some experiments performed by Dr. Wyman seem to 
 show that bacteria germs which would live in a solution 
 which had been boiled might be destroyed by being boiled 
 for six hours or longer. 
 
 There is reason for believing that many germs of low 
 organisms exist which are far too minute and too transparent 
 to be seen by the aid of the highest magnifying powers at our 
 command, and that while in this condition rapid multiplica- 
 
CREATURES FORMED PIECE BY PIECE. 
 
 73 
 
 tion takes place. Gradually the minute particles acquire 
 body sufficient to enable us to distinguish them from the clear 
 medium by which they are surrounded. So that it seems 
 to me the evidence against spontaneous generation increases 
 in force as our means of investigation are improved. At 
 the same time it must be admitted that this doctrine is 
 still supported by some authorities of great repute. 
 
 At the conclusion of one of his interesting essays, my 
 friend Dr. Child* puts a very pertinent question, and asks 
 why creatures may not be formed piece by piece, " as M. 
 Pouchet says, out of particles of dead matter, in the way 
 which he and Schaafhausen and Mantegazza tell us that 
 they have themselves witnessed ?" To this I should venture 
 to reply, that, as he is well aware, a host of facts have been 
 brought forward against the theory, while no good reasons 
 have been advanced in favour of supposing such a mode of 
 origin of living forms to be possible. As regards witnessing 
 such a formation of living beings out of dead matter all 
 that can be said is, that other observers who have employed 
 far higher powers than those referred to have never seen 
 anything of the kind. My own conviction is, that if crea- 
 tures are ever formed piece by piece out of particles of dead 
 matter, the operation will never be witnessed by mortals, 
 and I marvel that any one at all accustomed to careful 
 microscopical observation could succeed in persuading him- 
 self that he had actually seen the phenomenon supposed to 
 have occurred, f I consider the evidence that bacteria are 
 
 * "Essays on Physiological Subjects." Second edition. 1869. 
 P. ill. 
 
 f Dr. Child comments very severely on the microscopic observations 
 
74 LIFE. 
 
 not formed by the aggregation of particles of lifeless matter 
 as conclusive aud as irrefragable as the evidence against any 
 such mode of formation of mice, elephants, or men. Vague 
 statements about the coalescence of molecules to form 
 particles of protoplasmic matter, or physical basis of life, are 
 not convincing. Every one naturally enquires what is the 
 nature of the molecules alluded to, but he gets no answer. 
 Of the molecules all, it may be admitted, are complex, but 
 we are not told how the elements of which they consist are 
 probably arranged, or what determines the new states of 
 combination as the protoplasmic substance comes into being. 
 To any one who has actually studied under the highest 
 powers of the microscope (3,000 linear and upwards), the 
 most minute living organisms, and has watched their move- 
 ments and growth, the statements^ advanced in favour of 
 spontaneous generation will appear hardly worthy of serious 
 discussion, because he will feel quite convinced that for a 
 long while before the living particle which he is able to see 
 acquired the size and substance necessary to render it 
 visible, it existed as a more minute and more transparent 
 yet active and living particle, capable of growing and 
 multiplying ; and that the act of coming together of non- 
 living molecules supposed, if it occurs at all, must take 
 place in particles so very very far beyond the reach of 
 observation and experiment, as to be quite undemonstra- 
 ble, if not inconceivable. While, on the other hand, the 
 further investigation is carried, the more reasons he gains 
 
 of M. Pasteur, but he says nothing of the powers employed, or the de- 
 tails of the microscopic investigations carried out by M. Pasteur's 
 opponents. 
 
STRUCTURE OF A SPORE OF MILDEW. 75 
 
 for believing that the most minute individual particles he sees 
 resulted from the division and subdivision of already existing 
 particles. He sees the actual process of division taking place 
 in hundreds of instances, and in every class of living things, 
 from the very lowest up to man himself, and, in the absence 
 of positive demonstration to the contrary, he cannot admit 
 that any other mode of origin of living organisms of any 
 kind whatever exists in nature. 
 
 It must then be regarded as a fact that living beings 
 spring from pre-existing living beings, and that there is no 
 such thing as spontaneous generation. Living forms con- 
 tinue to exist and to grow so long as the conditions of life 
 remain favourable, but when these are changed, the or- 
 ganisms die. 
 
 Structure of a Spore of Mildew. If one of the simple 
 structures the microscopic protoplasms such as are repre- 
 sented in the plate opposite p. i, be examined (a), we shall 
 find that it is not the same in every part. It consists 
 externally of a delicate, transparent, glass-like texture, and 
 within of a material having a faintly granular appearance. 
 Suppose a little ordinary mildew dust, which is one of the 
 lowest forms of existence possessing a very simple structure 
 be examined. The little round bodies which compose it 
 are larger than those above referred to, and will therefore 
 suit the purpose of investigation better. Each of these has 
 a tolerably thick well-defined outline, while the interior is 
 perfectly transparent. When this transparent matter is ex- 
 amined under very high magnifying powers, numerous very 
 minute particles like dots will be observed. Here then are 
 two parts, the one situated externally, firm, glass like, and 
 
76 LIFE. 
 
 arranged so as to form an investing membrane closed at all 
 points, the other lying within, soft, and exhibiting no form 
 or structure whatever. Now if these bodies be placed 
 under favourable conditions certain changes will occur. 
 Let them be put, for instance, upon the moist surface of a 
 glass slide, and after a time let the slide be placed under 
 the microscope. First of all the particles absorb moisture, 
 and swell up, and the membrane becomes thinner in pro- 
 portion to the whole mass, and the matter within increases 
 in amount. 
 
 Next a new change is observed at one point in the 
 membrane. A small orifice is seen, through which a little 
 of the granular contents of the body, covered with a thin 
 layer of the inner part of the membrane, makes its way, and 
 thus a small nodule is formed which projects through the 
 external membrane. By degrees this assumes a structure 
 resembling that of the body from which it has proceeded ; 
 it increases in size; the membrane around it becomes 
 thicker; its point of attachment becomes less and less, until 
 at last it is completely separated, and becomes a free and 
 independent particle, exactly resembling that from which it 
 sprung, except that it is smaller, and capable of growing and 
 giving rise to new individuals like itself, by a repetition of the 
 process by which it was formed. 
 
 This is one way in which the particles may multiply, 
 but there are others. In one of these, too, an orifice forms 
 in the membrane of the particle of mildew, and a little of 
 the soft transparent material escapes, but it does not separate 
 as in the first case ; it remains in connexion with the mass, 
 and grows out into a narrow thread-like process. The mem- 
 
STRUCTURE OF A SPORE OF MILDEW. 77 
 
 brane on the external surface becomes thickened, and the 
 whole increases in breadth. Within the sheath is found 
 transparent matter, from which a number of little spherical 
 bodies or very minute growing particles like those observed 
 within the spheri car spore may be obtained. It may be 
 that as this process grows at one or more points a thinning 
 occurs in its wall, and a portion of its contents coming into 
 more immediate contact with the pabulum increases in 
 amount, and thus gives rise to the production of another 
 branch or process which grows exactly like the first. 
 
 Now, how does this simple organism nourish itself? 
 The materials for its growth and nourishment are certain 
 inanimate matters (solids and gases) existing dissolved in 
 fluid in which the organism floats. These materials must 
 pass into its structure and become part of it. That which 
 is inanimate must become incorporated with and assume 
 the properties of living matter. Now if such a living thing 
 be placed under certain unfavourable conditions its vital 
 properties will be destroyed. The transparent living matter 
 in its interior will shrivel up and die, but this will be 
 attended by no obvious alteration in the external mem- 
 brane. The part which exhibits form (formed matter) 
 remains; that which is without form (living matter) is 
 destroyed. 
 
 In the growth of the structure, then, how is the new 
 matter produced ? Does it take place by deposition upon 
 the external surface of the investing membrane, or is the 
 new matter produced by the soft formless matter in the 
 interior? To put the question still more simply, Is the 
 capsule, the so-called cell wall, formed by deposition of 
 
7 8 LIFE. 
 
 matter from the fluid surrounding it, or is it formed from 
 within ? and which is the oldest part of the capsule, its 
 external or internal surface? If the new matter were 
 deposited upon the external surface, we should expect to 
 find that the membrane would become thicker and thicker 
 as the growth of the organism advanced, while the central 
 portion would remain unaltered. This, however, is not the 
 case ; on the contrary, we find that as growth proceeds, the 
 wall in most cases becomes considerably thinned. It is 
 clear, therefore, that the increase in size cannot be due to 
 deposition from without. The matter deposited upon the 
 inner surface of the capsule is always softer than its general 
 substance, and the external surface of old capsules is 
 cracked and ragged. 
 
 In many of the algae this external surface serves as a 
 nidus for the development and growth of smaller algae a 
 fact which clearly shows it has ceased to be active, is under- 
 going disintegration, and becoming fitted for the pabulum 
 of other things, and is no longer capable of resisting the 
 action of external conditions. This is the oldest part of the 
 capsule which is now undergoing decay, and the small algae 
 are living in part upon the products thus produced. The 
 new material is added upon the inner surface of the capsule, 
 layer after layer, and where there are several layers the 
 innermost is the youngest and the outermost the oldest 
 portion of the structure. If this be so, it follows that the 
 inanimate material for the nourishment of these structures 
 must pass through the outer membrane, and be taken up by 
 the living matter within, which communicates to it the 
 same properties and powers which this living matter itself 
 
CHEMICAL CHANGES. 79 
 
 possesses, and which it has inherited from pre-existing 
 particles. The nutrition of cells of epithelium of man is 
 conducted upon the same plan. See p. ST. At present we 
 cannot get further than this. I am ignorant of the nature 
 of the changes which occur, but I think the facts as I have 
 stated them are true. 
 
 Is a Tissue living because attached 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, 
 dfca^/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, but those who 
 advocated this view failed to prove that the fungus did not 
 grow from the germ of a pre-existing fungus, and lived upon 
 the disintegrating elm as other living things consume other 
 kinds of pabulum. 
 
 Chemical and Mechanical Changes in Living Beings. 
 
8o LIFE. 
 
 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 
 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 put 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 
 
CHEMICAL CHANGES. 8 1 
 
 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 
 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 iri 
 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 
 
 G 
 
82 LIFE. 
 
 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. 
 
 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 attributed to the operation of the ordinary 
 forces. But not one of these phenomena as they occur in 
 living beings can be explained 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. 34), 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, 
 making bold assertions, and under cover of jokes about 
 
FORCE GUIDED BY MATTER. 83 
 
 the fiction of vitality, popular teachers may partially suc- 
 ceed in forcing upon the people the acceptance of dogmas 
 about force which are really untenable. The interest is 
 excited by the very forcible and high-sounding terms em- 
 ployed, but the language is often remarkable for vagueness 
 and laxity of expression, and conspicuous for its complete 
 want of precision and clearness of meaning, and the use of 
 terms that too often beg the question under consideration. 
 
 The matter in dispute has, at least as regards my own 
 observations, been actually misrepresented; for i. 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 (seep. 86), and which occur 
 in the germinal matter only, have in many instances been 
 completely ignored. 
 
 Force guided by Matter. 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 at- 
 tributing 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 to be limited 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.* But 
 
 * Mr. Huxley remarks, that to his mind it is a fact 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 
 
 G 2 
 
84 PROTOPLASM. 
 
 the Professor has not explained what he means by 
 guiding physical forces. He should have given us some 
 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 students ask if Mr. Hux- 
 ley's " facts" have been confirmed, and are anxious to learn 
 something concerning the evidence upon which they are 
 supposed to rest. 
 
 Why should the idea of the 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 
 
 almost mathematically arranged structures," &c. "Introduction to the 
 Classification of Animals." 
 
JELLY GUIDING FORCES. 85 
 
 guide matter, but here we have the new doctrine taught 
 that matter guides physical forces. But may it not be that 
 neither matter nor force is capable of guiding or directing 
 force or matter ? 
 
 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." 
 
86 VITALITY. 
 
 ACTIONS WHICH CHARACTERIZE EVERY KIND 
 
 OF LIVING MATTER, BUT WHICH NEVER OCCUR IN 
 
 ANY FORM OF NON-LlVING 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 vitai 
 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. % 
 
GROWTH AND NUTRITION. 87 
 
 New views concerning the vital processes of Growth and 
 Nutrition* The act of nutrition is peculiar to living beings 
 and involves much more than the mere addition of new 
 particles to a definite portion of matter, as some have held. 
 Growth resulting from nutrition is so very different in its 
 essential nature from every kind of increase resulting from 
 deposition or aggregation, that it seems wrong to apply the 
 word "growth " to the process of increase in the two cases. 
 If the term is to be employed at all, with reference to living 
 things, it should be restricted to them entirely, for a stone 
 does not grow in the sense a living thing grows. Here, 
 however, at the outset, I find myself distinctly at issue with 
 one whose opinions on such questions are entitled to respect. 
 At the same time I cannot help feeling that if the author in 
 question had observed more for himself, and trusted less to 
 the arbitrary dicta and inconclusive statements of others 
 upon elementary questions of the highest importance, which, 
 as he well knows, have been very imperfectly worked out, 
 he would have been led to adopt conclusions at variance 
 with the doctrines to which he has, I venture to think, 
 prematurely committed himself. After affirming that the 
 increase in size of the plant, like the crystal, is effected by 
 continuously integrating surrounding like elements with 
 itself, Mr. Herbert Spencer saysf that the food of an 
 animal is " a portion of the environing matter that contains 
 some compound atoms like some of the compound atoms 
 constituting its tissues." If such be so, the peculiar sub- 
 
 * The observations under this head formed the subject of a paper 
 published in the Trans. Mic. Soc., 1867. 
 
 t "The Principles of Biology," vol. i. p. 108. 
 
88 NUTRITION. 
 
 stances of which white fibrous tissue, yellow elastic tissue, 
 muscle, nerve, epithelium, &c., consist, ought to be present 
 in the white and yolk of an egg before these have undergone 
 conversion into the chick ; but we know that not one of 
 these things can be detected, and, in short, that develop- 
 ment and growth are processes essentially and absolutely 
 different from the mere deposition in a solid form of par- 
 ticles previously held in solution in a fluid. In growth the 
 substances dissolved in the fluid pabulum are completely 
 altered in composition and properties. Their elements are 
 re-arranged. If the elements of the dissolved crystalline 
 matter were torn asunder and then reunited in a different 
 way, so as to produce a new substance when deposited in a 
 solid form, crystallisation would in this one particular accord 
 with growth ; but there is not even this resemblance. A 
 crystal, then, does not grow. The fungus-like (!) accumu- 
 lation of carbon that takes place on the wick of an unsnuffed 
 candle is not growth. The deposition of geological strata, 
 the genesis of celestial bodies, are not examples of growth. 
 I think that if Mr. Herbert Spencer would carefully study 
 a growing microscopic fungus, he would modify his views 
 concerning the nature of growth^ and admit that there is an 
 essential difference between this peculiar process and the 
 above physical phenomena. 
 
 From what has been stated in many physiological works 
 the student would be led to conclude that the tissue or 
 formed matter of a living being to be nourished, selected 
 from a mixed fluid, in consequence of some sort of affinity, 
 certain constituents adapted for its nutrition, and that those 
 substances passed at once from a state of solution to the 
 
NATURE OF PROCESS. 89 
 
 condition of tissue. But no instance is known in which 
 any lifeless substance takes up another lifeless substance 
 differing from it in composition, and converts this last into 
 matter like itself, as occurs, for example, when a simple 
 gelatin-yielding texture increases in amount, although sur- 
 rounded by an albuminous material only in which no trace 
 of gelatin-yielding substance can be detected. 
 
 In the hope of ascertaining the essential nature of the 
 nutrient process, we must not limit ourselves to the con- 
 sideration of the phenomena occurring in the fully-formed 
 organisms of man and vertebrate animals, in which the 
 nutrient blood plays so important a part; but we must 
 extend our observation to plants and the lower organisms, 
 some of which consist of extremely minute independent 
 masses of matter. Many facts lead to the conclusion that 
 the nutritive process is, at least in its essential nature, the 
 same in all cases ; and whatever meaning be assigned to 
 the term, it ought to apply equally to the lowest simplest 
 forms and to the highest and most complex. 
 
 A simple living organism takes up a quantity of nutrient 
 matter and increases in weight. Having reached a certain 
 size portions may be detached, and each of these, after 
 absorbing nutrient matter, grows and gives rise to others. 
 In this case the nutrient pabulum is converted into living 
 matter, and as a result of nutrition there is an enormous 
 gain in weight. But, on the other hand, living bodies may 
 take up a considerable quantity of nutrient matter without 
 altering in weight, and indeed some, in spite of being 
 well supplied with nourishment, actually lose weight. The 
 new matter taken up may exactly compensate for old 
 
90 NUTRITION. 
 
 material which is removed, or more than compensate for 
 this : or the process of removal may proceed faster than 
 the process of nutrition. It is, therefore, obvious that 
 nutrition cannot be held to mean the mere addition of new 
 matter to a living body. 
 
 Suppose we now consider what actually occurs when 
 simple living matter, like an amreba, or a white blood- 
 corpuscle, or a pus-corpuscle, is nourished. Matter either 
 in a state of solution or capable of being readily dissolved 
 passes into the matter of which the living body is composed. 
 Some of the constituents become part of the living body, 
 while others are given off. The living body then increases 
 in size. It is nourished and grows. In other instances, as 
 in many of the lower vegetable organisms, and in the ele- 
 mentary parts or cells of the higher, a coloured material or 
 matter having some peculiar properties is formed while the 
 process of nutrition is proceeding. Now, this matter did 
 not exist in the pabulum, nor was it to be detected in the 
 living matter which absorbed the pabulum, but it has 
 resulted from the death of the living matter under certain 
 conditions. In this case, then, the pabulum is first changed 
 into living matter, and the living matter into the coloured or 
 other formed material. In some instances this formed 
 material accumulates in the elementary part itself, as in the 
 case of starch in vegetable cells and fat in animal cells, 
 and there is a gain in weight. In other cases the formed 
 material passes away from the germinal matter as fast as it 
 is produced, dissolved in fluid or in a gaseous state, and no 
 alteration in weight occurs, although a large quantity of 
 nutrient matter is taken up. 
 
CONVERSION OF PABULUM. 91 
 
 Usually, of the formed material produced, part accumu- 
 lates on the surface of the germinal matter and part escapes. 
 Consider what occurs in the nutrition of ordinary yeast. 
 A layer of cellulose matter which increases by the addition 
 of new layers to its inner surface is formed externally. 
 Within this is the transparent living or germinal matter. 
 When such a particle is nourished, the pabulum passes 
 through the cellulose wall into the germinal matter, and thus 
 the substance increases ; but at the same time some of the 
 germinal matter becomes converted into new cellulose, 
 which is added to that already existing, and alcohol, water, 
 and carbonic acid, which escape. The germinal matter 
 differs from the pabulum, and both differ in physical cha- 
 racters and chemical composition and properties from the 
 cellulose envelope. We cannot make the cellulose or the 
 germinal matter from the pabulum, nor can the pabulum be 
 obtained, as it was before, from either of the above substances. 
 How different are all these processes from the mere addition 
 of matter previously held in solution, as occurs in the 
 formation of a concretion, or a crystal, which increases by 
 the superposition of layer upon layer ! 
 
 Some writers, yielding to the suggestions of fancy and 
 vague speculation, instead of resting upon the firm ground 
 of observation and experiment, have endeavoured, without 
 having at command facts to justify such a conclusion, to 
 make people believe that there are forms very low in the 
 scale of living beings which appropriate inorganic materials 
 only, and which may, therefore, be very similar to the very 
 first living things which appeared upon the earth, and are, 
 in fact, according to this view, their direct descendants, 
 
92 NUTRITION. 
 
 without divergence or modification ; while, as we ascend 
 in the scale, we are to recognize creatures more and more 
 dependent for their existence upon beings below them 
 which produce the food suitable for the subsistence of their 
 snperiors. Just as the inorganic and lifeless gradually leads 
 up to the organic, the living, and the mental, so such 
 authorities would have us believe, are gradations of perfec- 
 tion, to be demonstrated as regards the nutritive process. 
 From the stone that grows by the mere addition of matter 
 upon its surface, there is a transition to the complex 
 animal, the elements of whose food must be elaborated, 
 perhaps, many times by lower and simpler creatures before 
 the combinations suitable for the nutrition of their tissues 
 are produced. But this is fiction, and it is fiction of a most 
 unwarrantable kind, for the "facts" upon which all this 
 rests are themselves fictions of the imagination. It is not 
 true that some living things are nourished by inorganic 
 matter alone, while others can only be nourished by matter 
 which has been previously elaborated by living beings ; nor 
 is it true, in any way, that there is a gradation from the 
 lifeless to the living. The lowest, simplest organisms 
 require for their nutrition, besides inorganic material, a 
 certain appreciable proportion of matter which has already 
 lived ; while, on the other hand, man himself appropriates 
 water and mineral matters as well as elementary substances 
 like oxygen, and these are as necessary for the nutrition of 
 man's body as bread and meat. The chemist who regards 
 oxygen merely as a substance which combines with certain 
 constituents of the organism, as it combines with carbon 
 during combustion, cannot be acquainted with many 
 
FORMATION OF TISSUE FROM BLOOD. 93 
 
 physiological facts which render that view untenable in 
 these days. It would almost seem as if by the " tendency" 
 of scientific thought, a demand for certain theories of a 
 certain tendency was from time to time excited. If that 
 be so, no wonder there should be a good supply of new 
 fancy facts and observations, for without some such support 
 the tendency itself would soon lose its vitality. 
 
 I propose now to refer briefly to the vital process of 
 nutrition as it occurs in man and the higher animals. It 
 has been said that the life of the body is the blood, and it 
 has been surmised that from this fluid the tissues derive 
 not only the elements of their nutrition, but the life or the 
 properties which we call by that name. But it is certain 
 that the material nutrient pabulum adapted for the nutrition 
 of the tissues, which the blood contains, is like all nu- 
 trient matter, lifeless, not living. The actual nutrition, 
 the act of conversion of the pabulum that was in the blood 
 into the tissue, is due to actions which occur outside the 
 vessels, and is altogether independent of the passive nu- 
 trient fluid. As little supported by facts as the opinion 
 above alluded to is the doctrine that arterial blood is very 
 highly nutritious, although a student reading any of our 
 text books would be led to believe that the highly nutritive 
 properties of arterial blood had been proved beyond all 
 question, and that every tissue to be nourished must have 
 its nutritive artery. The very active nutrition going on in 
 the lower animals and plants under conditions not favourable 
 to free oxidation, and the fact that in man and the higher 
 animals during the early periods of life when nutritive 
 activity is most remarkable, the blood is not so highly 
 
94 NUTRITION. 
 
 oxygenated as at a later time when the nutritive operations 
 are comparatively slowly carried on, prove that this doctrine 
 is erroneous. 
 
 Every one knows that food nourishes the body, and 
 that the tissues are nourished by the blood, and it is 
 generally believed that a high state of nutrition depends 
 upon a liberal diet. At the same time, however, we know 
 that the degree of nutrition exhibited by the body is not 
 dependent merely upon the quantity or quality of the food 
 introduced into the stomach, and absorbed and converted 
 into blood, but upon a number of circumstances besides. In 
 one individual much of the food taken may be excreted in 
 an altered form soon after it has been introduced into the 
 system, while in another a large proportion may become 
 converted into tissue and little pass away. This difference 
 is determined not by the pabulum, but by the living material 
 which is destined to take this up, and which is concerned 
 in the formation of tissue. Some men and some animals 
 soon become fat upon a diet which to others would be 
 extremely low \ while certain individuals cannot be made fat, 
 although supplied with abundance of the choicest and 
 most fat-nourishing food. We must also bear in mind 
 that every tissue in the body does not share equally in 
 the increased nutrition, and although we often talk familiarly 
 of the increased or diminished nutrition of the body, we refer 
 for the most part to an increase or diminution of the adipose 
 tissue, and, though to a much less extent, of the muscular 
 tissue. At the same time we know that every tissue in the 
 body is nourished from the earliest period of its existence ; 
 but that of all the tissues when the organism is fully deve- 
 
INCREASED AND DIMINISHED NUTRITION. 
 
 95 
 
 loped the adipose and muscular are most influenced by 
 altered diet. It may be said that the elementary parts of 
 these tissues exhibit greater variation in activity than those 
 of other textures. In some men and animals it would 
 appear that the elementary parts of adipose tissue take up a 
 larger share of nutrient matter in proportion than those of 
 other tissues j while, on the other hand, the elementary 
 parts of the glandular excretory organs are, in other indivi- 
 duals, the most active. The elements which in the first 
 would slowly become an integral part of the body, as fat 
 and other tissues, would in the last quickly escape as 
 carbonic acid, water, and other substances, in the excre- 
 tions. It is not possible to say why one set of tissues 
 should be most active in one individual, and another set in 
 another individual, any more than we can explain why a 
 particular kind of food, which is most easily assimilated by 
 one person or animal, should be useless or injurious to 
 another. 
 
 As there are in the body many different tissues to be 
 nourished, and many different substances in the blood 
 which may nourish them, it is necessary to consider what 
 particular constituents of the blood are principally con- 
 cerned in the nutrition of the different textures. The 
 opinion seems to have been very generally entertained that 
 certain substances in the blood were destined for the nutri- 
 tion of particular tissues, while other textures, it was sup- 
 posed, selected from the fluid, constituents of a different 
 character; for instance, it has been maintained that the 
 red blood-corpuscles were specially concerned in the nutri- 
 tion of the nervous and muscular tissues, while the white 
 
9 6 NUTRITION. 
 
 blood-corpuscles nourished the fibrous textures that fat 
 selected fatty matter from the blood, muscle fibrinous 
 material, and so on, but these notions are not supported by 
 facts more recently demonstrated. 
 
 In a paper which I communicated to the Microscopical 
 Society in 1 864, I endeavoured to show that the blood, like 
 the tissues, might be looked upon as composed of germinal 
 or living matter, and formed material. The white blood- 
 corpuscles and smaller corpuscles, probably of similar cha- 
 racter, which last I showed were to be detected in the 
 the blood, consist of germinal matter ; while the red blood- 
 corpuscles, the albumen, and some other constituents, are 
 to be regarded as formed material, being composed of non- 
 living matter, possessing, it may be, peculiar characters, 
 properties, and chemical composition, but resulting from 
 changes taking place in pre-existing germinal matter. Tr^e 
 white blood-corpuscles, therefore, are themselves composed 
 of living matter, which is nourished, and they cannot, as 
 white blood-corpuscles contribute to the nutrition of any 
 tissues whatever. Living matter never nourishes living 
 matter^ although, of course, the products resulting from the 
 death of many forms of living matter do so in an eminent 
 degree. 
 
 With regard to the red blood-corpuscles, it seems to me 
 probable that they play a highly important part in equal- 
 ising the temperature in all parts of the body, taking away 
 heat from parts whose temperature is above the normal 
 standard, and distributing heat to textures which are colder 
 than they should be. At the same time it must be borne 
 in mind that the red blood-corpuscles themselves are 
 
PAB UL UM IN BLOOD. 9 7 
 
 gradually undergoing disintegration ; and although it seems 
 most probable that the constituents resulting from their 
 decay are eliminated from the body in the form of urinary, 
 biliary, and other excrementitious matters, it is most likely 
 that some of the products take part in nutrition. 
 
 Upon the whole, however, it seems probable that the 
 constituents which form the pabulum of the tissues are 
 those which are contained in the serum of the blood ; and 
 it is impossible to conceive how minute quantities of pabu- 
 lum prone to undergo rapid change could be more perfectly 
 and equally distributed to the textures, without its com- 
 position being materially changed, than in the form of the 
 very thin layers which each red blood-corpuscle carries 
 upon its surface, and smears, as it were, upon the walls of 
 the capillary vessel in intimate relation with the tissue. 
 The arrangement is such as to reduce to a minimum the 
 chances of alteration in the composition of the nutrient 
 fluid as it traverses the vessels in different parts of the 
 body. 
 
 From a careful consideration of the facts, I cannot help 
 drawing the inference that the serum is the pabulum ; that 
 the red-blood corpuscles are concerned in its distribution, 
 and in preventing changes in the composition of the great 
 mass of the blood, as certain constituents are removed from 
 it or -poured into it ; and that the white blood-corpuscles 
 are masses of germinal matter concerned in the formation 
 of the serum, as well as of the red blood-corpuscles. In 
 support of this view, I would venture to direct attention to 
 the following points : 
 
 i st. That fibrous tissue, shell, cartilage, muscular and 
 
 H 
 
98 NUTRITION. 
 
 nervous textures the two last as perfect and, as far as we 
 can make out, far more delicate, elaborate, and beautiful 
 than any of the tissues of vertebrate animals are formed, 
 and with wonderful rapidity, in many of the lower creatures 
 quite destitute of a nutrient fluid containing bodies corre- 
 sponding to the red blood-corpuscles of the vertebrate 
 blood ; and that in all these cases the nutrient fluid is clear, 
 transparent, colourless, and contains a substance closely 
 allied to the albumen of serum, if not identical with it. 
 Different plants and animals may produce from the same 
 pabulum, and apparently under similar conditions, very 
 different substances ; and the different kinds of germinal 
 matter in the body of one of the higher animals give rise 
 to formed matters differing widely in structure, chemical 
 composition, and properties. 
 
 2nd. That in man and the higher animals the develop- 
 ment of the tissues corresponds to the period of life when 
 the blood is not remarkable for the number or perfection of 
 its red blood-corpuscles. 
 
 3rd. That certain morbid growths appear and increase 
 rapidly in cases in which the blood has for some time con- 
 tained a very small proportion of red blood-corpuscles. 
 
 It seems, therefore, probable that the substances taking 
 part in the nutrition of all the different textures of the 
 body are furnished by the albuminous matter of the serum, 
 and that the production of muscle, nerve, fibrous tissue, &c., 
 depends not so much upon the characters of the pabulum 
 supplied as upon the converting powers of the germinal or 
 living matter which appropriates this. The substances 
 formed by germinal matter depend upon its vital powers 
 
TISSUE NOT DEPOSITED FROM BLOOD. 
 
 99 
 
 and the conditions under which these cease to be manifested, 
 rather than upon the presence of particular substances in 
 the papulum itself. Different kinds of germinal matter 
 have power to rearrange the elements of the very same 
 pabulum supplied to them, in different ways, so that one 
 kind of germinal matter produces muscle, another nerve, 
 another fibrous tissue, and so on ; each of these tissues, 
 and, of course, the pabulum itself, containing oxygen, 
 hydrogen, nitrogen, carbon, and some other elements, but 
 differently combined and differently arranged. 
 
 Athough the opinion is still entertained by many ana- 
 tomists that tissue as, for example, the intercellular sub 
 stance of cartilage is deposited directly from the blood, no 
 one has explained by what means the composition of the 
 pabulum becomes so changed as it passes through the 
 walls of the vessels to be distributed between the masses 
 of germinal matter. On the other hand, the facts ad- 
 vanced by me several years ago in favour of the view that 
 every kind of formed material passes through the state or 
 stage of germinal matter have not been overthrown. The 
 existence of germinal matter before the production of the 
 formed material of cartilage and all other tissues ; the con- 
 tinuity of the germinal matter with the formed material in 
 tissues in process of development ; the circumstance of no 
 case being known in which formed material is produced 
 without germinal matter ; and the demonstration that fluids 
 will pass through a comparatively thick layer of formed 
 material, and reach the germinal matter in the course of a 
 few seconds, have forced upon me the conviction that 
 pabulum invariably passes to the germinal matter, and some 
 
 H 2 
 
ioo NUTRITION. 
 
 of its constituents, undergo conversion into this active 
 living substance, and acquire its properties and powers, 
 portions of the germinal matter from time to time losing 
 their original vital properties, and undergoing conversion 
 into lifeless formed material. 
 
 So far, then, it would seem that in the process of 
 nutrition pabulum passes into living germinal matter, and is 
 converted into this substance. The formed material or 
 tissue which, in many cases, constitutes the chief increase 
 in weight and bulk, has all passed through the state of ger- 
 minal matter. The formation of this germinal matter from 
 the pabulum is therefore the important part of the process, 
 but it is one most difficult to investigate, if indeed it be 
 not altogether beyond the province of investigation. 
 
 It is most interesting to inquire by what means the 
 soluble pabulum is caused to pass into the germinal matter. 
 No form of attraction or affinity that we are acquainted with 
 will account for the passage of pabulum towards and into 
 the germinal matter. The question is one upon which I 
 have ventured to speculate. The tendency which every 
 mass of germinal matter exhibits to divide into smaller por- 
 tions, each part appearing to move away from other portions, 
 suggests the idea of there being some centrifugal force in 
 operation. This moving away of particles from a centre 
 will necessarily create a tendency of the fluid around to 
 move towards the centre ; I think, therefore, that the 
 nutrient pabulum is, as it were, drawn in by centripetal cur- 
 rents, excited by the centrifugal movements of the particles 
 of the living germinal matter. How is it that vitality gives 
 to matter the power of moving away from centres I cannot 
 
NA TURE OF NUTRITION. i o i 
 
 even attempt to explain. That this is so, is rendered pro- 
 bable by many general facts, open to the observation of all, 
 as well as by the wonderful phenomena seen with the aid of 
 the highest powers of our microscopes. 
 
 The point in which every nutritive operation differs 
 essentially from every other known change is this : the com- 
 position and properties of the nutrient matter are completely 
 altered, its elements are entirely rearranged, so that com- 
 pounds which may be detected in the nutrient matter are no 
 longer present when this has been taken up by the matter 
 to be nourished. The only matter capable of effecting such 
 changes as these is living matter, and it is very remarkable 
 that when this matter ceases to live, we do not detect 
 amongst the compounds formed at its death substances pre- 
 viously present in the pabulum, but new bodies altogether, 
 and these often vary according to the circumstances under 
 which the matter dies. 
 
 Desiring as I do to yield all that can be yielded to those 
 who maintain that there is no vital power distinct from 
 ordinary force, I might say that a particle of soft transparent 
 matter, called by some living, which came from a pre-exist- 
 ing particle, effected, silently and in a moment, without appa 
 ratus, with little loss of material, at a temperature of 60 or 
 lower, changes in matter, some of which can be imitated in 
 the laboratory in the course of days or weeks by the aid of 
 a highly skilled chemist, furnished with complex apparatus 
 and the means of producing a very high temperature and 
 intense chemical action, and with an enormous waste of 
 material. It is, therefore, quite obvious that an indepen- 
 dent, thoughtful person, must, for the present, hold that the 
 
102 NUTRITION. 
 
 operations by which changes are effected in substances by 
 living matter, are in their nature essentially different from 
 those which man is obliged to employ to bring about changes 
 of a similar kind out of the body ; and until we are taught 
 what the agent or operator in the living matter really is, it is 
 surely permissible to call it vital power. Its actions cannot 
 be denied and ought not to be ignored. 
 
 It seems to me childish, rather than philosophical, on the 
 part of any one to reassert in these days that nutrition is 
 merely a chemical process, unless he can imitate by 
 chemical means the essential phenomena which take place 
 when any living thing is nourished. The passage of a fluid 
 through a tissue by which its structure is preserved is not 
 nutrition, or the introduction of preservative fluids into dead 
 tissues would be a nutritive operation. A fluid may hold in 
 solution certain substances which are separated from it as it 
 traverses the tissue, thus adding weight and altering the 
 properties of the tissue, as occurs when calcareous and other 
 slightly soluble substances are deposited in the soft matrix of 
 bone, teeth, shell, and other textures. This is a process which 
 can be made to take place in lifeless matter, and has been 
 adduced in support of the doctrine that the tissues of plants 
 and animals are formed by physical and chemical agencies 
 only ; but it is not nutrition. Those who advance such 
 arguments confuse the process of deposition of insoluble 
 salts in a material previously formed, with the actual forma- 
 tion of the material itself out of substances of a totally 
 different composition. 
 
 Nutrition, then, involves the conversion of lifeless pabu- 
 lum into living germinal matter, and comprises these steps. 
 
VITALITY. 
 
 1. The contact of the soluble pabulum with the ger- 
 minal matter. 
 
 2. The separation of the elements of the nutrient 
 substance from their state of combination as pabulum. 
 
 3. The rearrangement of the elements, and the con- 
 version of some of these into new germinal matter. 
 
 Nutrition is impossible unless living germinal matter be 
 present, and in every case in which it is known to occur new 
 germinal matter is produced. Nutrition is a vital process, 
 its occurrence is positive evidence of vitality, and nothing 
 like it has ever yet been effected by human ingenuity. 
 
 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 ? 
 
 I regard "vitality" as a power of a peculiar kind, 
 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 
 
104 
 
 VITALITY. 
 
 properties are lost whenever living matter dies, and are 
 never regained by those 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 
 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 
 
VITAL PHENOMENA. 
 
 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 
 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 
 
io6 VITALITY. 
 
 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 
 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 
 
VITAL PHENOMENA. 107 
 
 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 
 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 some try 
 to put down, with firmness and force ? 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 
 
Io8 LIFE. 
 
 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. 
 
 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, which has been 
 already referred to (see p. 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 
 
OF A LIVING SPHERULE. 109 
 
 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. 
 
 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 differ- 
 ing 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. 
 
IIO VITALITY. 
 
 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. 
 
 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 
 nvolve 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 
 
CENTRIFUGAL MO VEMENTS. 1 1 1 
 
 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. There 
 must, indeed, be centres more central than the most remote 
 spots which can be rendered evident to the senses, and it 
 is not possible to conceive an actual centre. The most 
 minute molecule must be compound to its very centre, and 
 yet the resolution of complex matter into their elements 
 must take place, and the re-arrangement of these in a new 
 manner must occur in the central part of every molecule 
 of which every mass of living matters consists. The 
 further consideration of this question is of the deepest 
 interest ; but 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 matters which 
 may 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, take place in the central part 
 of the spherical particles of germinal matter only. Dis- 
 cussions as to the nature of the vital forces must, I think, 
 therefore be confined to the consideration 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 re- 
 moved from their ultimate spherical components. 
 
 Centri f ugal Movement of Living Particles. Movement 
 takes place in the most minute living particles in a direc- 
 tion from centre to circumference, while the inanimate matter 
 
II2 VITALITY. 
 
 which is about to become living passes in the opposite di- 
 rection (see p. 47) ; 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 short ; and it would seem that this influence can 
 only affect matter which has arrived at the very centre of the 
 living 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 ; 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 
 
AL TERA TION IN VITAL PO WER. T 1 3 
 
 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 
 particles having different properties and powers, we should 
 still be quite unable to explain how it was 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. 
 
 Alteration 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 production 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 
 
 I 
 
H4 VITALITY. 
 
 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 
 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. 
 
 Increased Action. 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 
 
INCREASED VITAL ACTION. 115 
 
 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 
 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 these different 
 antagonistic forces acting upon matter in opposite directions. 
 
 I 2 
 
ll6 LIFE. 
 
 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 understand, the ultimate 
 elements, or the compound molecules, and causes them 
 to take up particular relations to one another, so that 
 when they combine, compounds possessing special cha- 
 racters 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 
 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 
 
VITAL POWER. II7 
 
 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 
 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 cherhistry are as worthy of acceptance 
 
Il8 VITALITY. 
 
 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 
 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 : 
 
VITALITY. II9 
 
 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 
 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 
 
120 LIFE. 
 
 certain circumstances at an early period of development, so 
 disposes the material which it governs, that mechanisms 
 result of most wonderful structure, at any rate admirably 
 adapted, if they have been 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, 
 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 
 
VITAL POWER. i2i 
 
 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 independently 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 
 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. 
 
122 LIFE. 
 
 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 it may be 
 freed from the material, and yet be. 
 
OF MIND. 
 
 Of Nerve Action in General. 
 
 |T has been very generally concluded that the 
 peripheral excitation of a nerve is due to some 
 change taking place in the nerve fibre itself; and 
 it must be admitted that some of the most recent anatomi- 
 cal observations in Germany favour this view, inasmuch as 
 fine terminal filaments of nerve fibre destitute of germinal matter 
 said to ramify amongst the anatomical elements of certain are 
 tissues. And these fibres are- represented as terminating in 
 free ends, which may reach the surface of the cuticle for 
 example, and even come into actual contact with anything 
 which touches it. But those who describe and figure such 
 fibres amongst the epithelial cells of an epidermic tissue, 
 do not tell us how they were formed, and how they came 
 into the positions in which observers profess to demonstrate 
 them. Many of the appearances represented in recent 
 drawings of the supposed nerve terminations, have long 
 been familiar to me, but I cannot accept the interpretation 
 which has been given. It is curious that lines between 
 certain epithelial cells, which by some have been looked 
 upon as nerves, have been regarded by other observers as 
 lymphatics, the tubes of which it has been said have been 
 actually filled with colouring matter. Careful observation, 
 
124 OF MIND. 
 
 under most favourable circumstances, has forced me to dis- 
 sent entirely from both views. In every case in which I 
 have been able to demonstrate the finest nerve fibres I have 
 succeeded in proving the existence of germinal matter in 
 connection with them. 
 
 There is, however, no doubt that nerve action is influ- 
 enced by pressure upon the fibre of a nerve without any 
 change in germinal matter. In many nerves of the higher 
 animals a considerable length of axis cylinder intervenes 
 between the nerve centre and the peripheral distribution of 
 the nerve fibres, which is destitute of germinal matter, but 
 which, nevertheless, receives and transmits nervous impres- 
 sions made upon it in this part of its course. So that, although 
 absence of germinal matter from a considerable extent of 
 peripheral nerve fibre does not justify the conclusion that 
 the nerve fibre in question is not an active fibre, the mere 
 statement that very fine fibres have been seen amongst 
 epithelial or other cells, and constitute the essential part of 
 the peripheral nerve apparatus, must be received with the 
 greatest caution. Until these supposed nerve fibres have 
 been actually followed into undoubted nerve trunks, and 
 the manner in which they were formed has been clearly 
 pointed out, we cannot be expected to assent to the conclu- 
 sion that the appearances described are really due to nerves 
 at all. In all tissues of vertebrata in which I have studied 
 the very fine peripheral nerve fibres, I have succeeded in 
 tracing them into undoubted nerve trunks, and I have 
 always detected numerous masses of germinal matter in 
 connection with these fibres, as will be found figured in my 
 drawings. Moreover, the germinal matter is more abun- 
 
ON NER VE A CTION IN GENERAL. 1 2 5 
 
 dant in the terminal portions of the peripheral nerve organs 
 that I have studied than in any other situations. I should, 
 therefore, doubt if terminal fibres which were destitute of 
 germinal matter were nerve fibres at all. 
 
 From a consideration of the facts we are led to conclude 
 that the nerve fibre in all cases transmits the nerve current 
 as a conductor, and that pressure, &c., upon any part of its 
 course will affect the rate of transmission of the current and 
 the conducting property of the fibre, but that the current 
 originates in germinal matter. 
 
 That the masses of germinal matter, which I have 
 shown to be numerous in the fine nerve fibres of nerve 
 organs, besides taking part in the formation of the fibres, 
 are concerned in nervous action, appears therefore to me 
 probable from the following facts : 
 
 1. They are very numerous in the peripheral ramifica- 
 tions of all nerves. 
 
 2. All special peripheral nerve organs, as the retina, the 
 expansions of the olfactory and auditory nerves, the papillae 
 of touch and taste, as well as the peripheral nervous expan- 
 sions beneath sensitive mucous membranes, the skin, &c., 
 are remarkable for the great number, as well as for the 
 large size, of the masses of germinal matter. 
 
 3. The proportion of germinal matter is always very 
 great in nerve centres, which there is abundant reason for 
 regarding as the principal seats of development of the 
 nerve force. 
 
 4. That where, as in the sensitive "papilla upon the toe 
 of the frog, the nerve organ is more acutely sensitive (or 
 more active in any other way) at one part of the year than 
 
126 OF MIND. 
 
 at another, its increased activity is associated with a great 
 increase in the amount of the germinal matter. 
 
 5. The principal change which takes place in a texture 
 which in health appears to be but slightly sensitive, and 
 becomes eminently so when inflamed, as the peritoneum, is 
 a very great increase in the germinal matter which it contains 
 and this often proceeds to such an extent that the ramifica- 
 tions of the nerves appear as lines of oval masses of ger- 
 minal matter, so that when a tissue which in the healthy 
 state gives no evidence of sensation becomes acutely pain- 
 ful when inflamed, the feeling of pain must be due in some 
 way to an increase of the germinal matter of the nerves as 
 well as that of other tissues. 
 
 Of the Nerve Current. The nerve current itself probably 
 results in a great measure from changes occurring in the 
 germinal matter of the nerve centres, or more probably in 
 the chemical compounds immediately formed by it ; and the 
 masses of germinal matter in the peripheral nerve organs 
 most likely give origin to feeble currents in much the same 
 way. In disease the intensity of the currents formed at the 
 periphery of the nerves is probably increased. 
 
 With regard to the nature of the nerve current little 
 positive is known, the general opinion of physiologists being 
 that it is some mode of force correlated with heat, electricity, 
 &c., but not exactly identical with any form or mode of 
 energy known. The arguments upon which this opinion 
 is based appear to me very inconclusive. Is it reasonable 
 to assume new modes or forms of force ? Surely the 
 evidence is strongly in favour of the view that the nerve 
 current is electricity, and I think that most, if not all, 
 
OF THE NERVE CURRENT. I2 y 
 
 the phenomena familiar to us may be explained upon this 
 view. Some physiologists have sought to account for the 
 wonderful phenomena of the nervous system by supposing 
 that some force or power of a peculiar and exceptional kind 
 is at work, and it seems scarcely to have occurred to them, 
 if ordinary force, as electricity, be made to travel in different 
 directions, and the currents combined in various ways and 
 made to traverse series of conducting cords very specially 
 arranged, according to design, the phenomena may be 
 accounted for without resorting to the hypothesis of the 
 existence of a peculiar mode or form of force not yet dis- 
 covered.* And it is more probable that the various effects 
 are determined by alterations in the intensity of the current, 
 and in the conducting properties of the fibres than by 
 different kinds of nerve force. It is surely more in accordance 
 with reason to endeavour to explain the phenomena by the 
 action of forces we know something about, than to attribute 
 them to the influence of other forms or modes of force 
 which are purely fanciful and fictitious. At any rate it 
 will be time to call in the aid of such airy nothings when 
 all attempts to explain the facts by known forces shall have 
 failed. No one has yet succeeded in rendering it probable 
 that the nerve current is not electricity while a great number 
 
 * Physicists and chemists see no difficulty whatever in assuming the 
 existence of many modes of force of which they can form no conception, 
 and think it very satisfactory to refer phenomena which they cannot 
 understand to some at present undiscovered form or mode of ordinary 
 motion but if any one attributes these same phenomena to the influence 
 of some equally undiscovered form of force having no connexion what- 
 ever with primary energy or motion, he is ridiculed, because, say the 
 physicists and chemists, " there is but one force in kosmos !" 
 
128 OF MIND. 
 
 of well ascertained facts are strongly in favour of this 
 inference.* 
 
 But if conclusive proof had been afforded that the nerve 
 current was electricity, we should not even in that case have 
 ascertained the whole truth, and, indeed, should have 
 advanced but a little way towards a true explanation of nerve 
 phenomena. For action and work are due not to force 
 alone, but to the machinery by which the force is con- 
 ditioned, and this is determined in nerve organs by the 
 arrangement of the fibres and centres in short, by the 
 form or structure of the nerve apparatus. And this form 
 and structure are the result of a long series of changes of 
 the most complex character, which cannot be fully explained 
 in the present state of our knowledge, but can be proved 
 to be dependent upon the germinal matter ; and since it has 
 been shown that the nervous system at an early period con- 
 sists entirely of germinal matter, and that in the fully 
 developed state there is much germinal matter associated 
 with every part of it that is active, especially all nerve 
 centres and all peripheral organs, it is obvious that we can- 
 not advance one step towards the explanation until we have 
 determined the nature of the changes occurring in the 
 germinal matter. 
 
 But unfortunately we are not yet acquainted with the 
 exact structure even of the simplest nervous apparatus. 
 
 * It is a source of regret to me that my friend Dr. Child should 
 have so mistaken my views upon this matter, as to tell his readers 
 ("Essays on Physiological Subjects." Second edition, p. 277) that I 
 look "upon nerve force as a form of vital force," which is a view 
 contrary to that which I have taught for the last twenty years. 
 
STRUCTURE OF NERVE APPARATUS. 
 
 129 
 
 We do not know exactly what is essential for nervous action, 
 and the study of the constitution of the ultimate active 
 part of nerve tissues is a matter of the greatest difficulty. 
 But how can we hope, without an accurate knowledge 
 of the construction of the simplest type of nerve instrument, 
 to learn much about the working of the most complex 
 nervous apparatus ? Is not the kind of work performed by 
 an ordinary machine determined by its construction, and 
 has not every bit of the work done a particular form or 
 character stamped upon it which may be traced, as it were, 
 through the machine to its designer? To say that the work 
 done by any machine is the result of force, is, therefore, but 
 a half truth, nay, it is not truth at all, for force alone can- 
 not do the work or produce the machine which performs 
 the work. Both the work and the machine exhibit character 
 or form which was not derived from force, but from mind, 
 or whatever that may be called which governs, directs, 
 designs. There is no mechanism, animate or inanimate, 
 simple or complex, which has resulted only from the influence 
 of ordinary force ; and although it has been asserted over 
 and over again that force forms and builds tissues, not the 
 slightest evidence can be advanced in support of this 
 arbitrary dogma. It would not be more absurd to assert 
 that motion designs, originates, and creates, than it is to 
 maintain that force forms and builds. Nor will all the 
 energy, authority, and influence the physico-chemical school 
 can bring to bear, succeed in forcing thoughtful and in- 
 telligent people to accept such assertions. What strikes one 
 as most wonderful is that any one should try to make people 
 believe that ordinary force can form, or has ever formed, any 
 
 K 
 
I 3 o OF MIND. 
 
 mechanism or other thing in this world capable of working 
 or acting. 
 
 OF MENTAL NERVOUS ACTION.* 
 
 After the admissions I have been obliged to make of the 
 failure of attempts to demonstrate the mere structure of 
 comparatively simple nerve organs, it may seem almost a 
 waste of time to venture upon the consideration of the action 
 of the highest and most complex of them all ; but, in fact, 
 opinions have been formed and conclusions have been 
 arrived at upon the subject. There can be little impro- 
 priety, therefore, in enquiring what is the general conception 
 of mental nerve action to be derived from contemplating 
 the structure and arrangement of the tissues concerned, as 
 far as these have yet been elucidated, in conjunction with 
 a careful consideration of important general facts and prin- 
 ciples discovered in studying other and less complex nerve 
 phenomena. 
 
 There can be no doubt that the most important part of 
 the mechanism engaged in mental action is situated in the 
 grey matter of the cerebral convolutions ; and the results of 
 observations upon the structure, as well as experiments 
 upon the action of other nerve organs, justify us in the con- 
 clusion that nerve-cells consisting of germinal matter and 
 formed material, and nerve fibres composed of formed 
 material only, are the active agents. These are so arranged 
 
 * It is hoped that the new facts and observations recorded in this 
 section will, in some slight degree, atone for the occasional introduction 
 of what will now be regarded by many modern authorities an obsolete 
 metaphysic. 
 
OF ME NT A L NER VO US A CTION. 1 3 T 
 
 as to constitute a mechanism (if this term may be properly 
 applied to it) of marvellous perfection and complexity. 
 The fibres, many being of extreme tenuity, are seen to 
 interlace with one another, and run in every conceivable 
 direction, so that when the observer realizes the actual 
 arrangement as it exists in a very small portion of grey 
 matter, and this is the utmost he can hope to do, he marvels 
 how it has been brought about. Though he is convinced 
 that the whole has been, as it were, laid down according to 
 a definite plan and has been designed to fulfil a special 
 purpose, he is unable to picture to himself the gradual 
 changes by which the result has been attained, and he 
 cannot discover the laws which have governed them. There 
 can, however, be no question that our knowledge upon these 
 matters will increase as investigation advances, although it 
 is not likely we shall ever be able to explain with exactness 
 the nature of the power, force, or property which determines 
 at the first the ultimate structure and exact arrangement the 
 mechanism shall at length acquire. To state that this is due 
 to crystallisation, or formifaction, or differentiation, and to 
 offer any such vague assertion as an explanation of the facts 
 observed, is not adding to our knowledge. 
 
 After having shown (p. 87) in what particulars the for- 
 mation of the simplest structure differs from the process 
 of crystallisation, it is unnecessary to discuss the question 
 with reference to the highest and most complex tissue 
 known. But even if we could explain the formation of the 
 complex structure of the cerebral convolutions, we should 
 have advanced but a little way towards a knowledge of 
 mental action, for, as it were, behind all this structure, 
 
 K 2 
 
132 OF MIND. 
 
 operating now on one part of the mechanism, now on 
 another, is the mind, the will, the thinking power itself. 
 What is the nature of this, and how does it act upon the 
 mechanism ? If the conclusions to which I have been led 
 with regard to the importance of germinal matter in all 
 ordinary nervous acts be correct, it is almost certain that 
 mental nervous action is very intimately associated with 
 changes occurring in a particular kind of living growing 
 matter. We find a large proportion of germinal matter 
 present in the grey matter of every kind of brain, and at 
 every period of life. Even in old age, when the proportion 
 of germinal matter in the various tissues and organs of the 
 body has become much reduced, a large amount is still 
 found in the grey matter of the brain. Moreover, the mental 
 excitement, wakefulness, and delirium, so remarkable in 
 many cases of fever and inflammation of the membranes 
 and superficial portion of the grey matter of the convo- 
 lutions, are invariably associated with changes in the 
 germinal matter. In such cases I find the masses of 
 germinal matter are much larger than in the healthy tissue, 
 and, in some instances they are twice as large. I have also 
 seen the enlarged mass in the centre of the caudate nerve- 
 cells dividing into several masses which resemble pus 
 corpuscles, and have the same appearance as the pus 
 corpuscles which are sometimes seen in epithelium 
 (PL VIIL, p. 34). 
 
 But if it be admitted that mental phenomena are entirely 
 due to changes in the germinal matter of the cerebral con- 
 volutions, there will be much difference of opinion con- 
 cerning j.th^. precise way in which this germinal matter 
 
 S A 
 
ARE MENTAL ACTIONS REFLEX? 133 
 
 operates \ and, in connexion with this question, it must be 
 admitted there is much room for speculation. I shall 
 venture to bring under notice the view which, in my opinion, 
 appears, upon the whole, to be most in accordance with 
 facts of observation and experiment. But, in the first 
 place, I propose to refer very briefly to some of the opinions 
 which have been entertained upon this matter, and to the 
 general principles upon which these have been based. 
 
 Every one will admit that the nerve tissue of the brain 
 is the instrument through which alone thought works and 
 mind acts, and I think the facts I have advanced render it 
 impossible for any one to deny that this instrument is formed 
 by, or is the result of, changes taking place in germinal 
 matter; but we are not now inquiring how the material 
 channels which convey the mandates of the will are formed, 
 but rather how these mandates originate, from what they 
 emanate, and what is their nature. 
 
 Are Mental Nervous Actions of the Nature of Reflex 
 Actions ? In all animals which possess nerve organs we 
 find that an external impression is followed by a certain 
 internal change, and we explain this by saying that the 
 physical disturbance is conducted by the afferent nerves to 
 the nerve centre, whence it is reflected by motor nerves 
 distributed to the muscles, which are thus caused to contract, 
 and in many cases the intensity of the contraction varies 
 with the character of the external impression. Such are 
 the so-called physical or reflex nervous actions. In mental 
 nervous actions, however, the impression starts from within, 
 not from without, and although certain of the lower mental 
 operations may perhaps without impropriety be included 
 
'34 
 
 OF MIND. 
 
 in the category of reflex actions, we are all conscious of 
 others, and these the highest of all nervous phenomena and 
 peculiar to man himself, which require no external stimulus 
 for their excitation. These, on the contrary, attain their 
 highest perfection when the mind is absorbed in contem- 
 plating its own peculiar states, and has succeeded, as it 
 were, in withdrawing itself to the utmost possible extent 
 from the influence of surrounding conditions which operate 
 physically upon the peripheral portion only of a mechanism, 
 the central portion of which is in some way under the im- 
 mediate control of mind. To say, then, in answer to the 
 question, "What happens in the brain when its possessor 
 thinks ?" that what he terms ideas and thoughts are excited 
 by, and are the consequence of, changes occurring outside 
 him, the result of an external impulse, and due to a sort 
 of reflex action, appears to me a very unsatisfactory reply, 
 not approaching an explanation. For, in the first place, if 
 we admit that mental action results from external impres- 
 sions, these must be stored up in some unknown manner, 
 and lie dormant for a long period of time, while actions 
 which are ordinarily termed reflex are characterized by 
 immediately following the external impressions. Secondly, 
 in mental nervous acts, no one has shown that the supposed 
 mental reflex action bears any relation whatever to the 
 external physical impulse supposed to excite it ; or how is 
 to be explained, upon the reflex hypothesis, the fact that 
 a very slight external impression may excite excessive 
 mental action, or vice versa ? Thirdly, when the mind is most 
 active, ordinary reflex phenomena are often in complete 
 abeyance. Fourthly, the organs concerned in ordinary 
 
MIND AND THE ORGANS OF SENSATION. 
 
 135 
 
 reflex actions are in an active state long before mental 
 nervous organs are developed, and it is difficult to see why 
 the mental apparatus should be so much slower in develop- 
 ment than other reflex apparatus if it is of this nature. 
 The reflex mechanism soon attains its highest state of per- 
 fection. The mental apparatus advances slowly in develop- 
 ment, but continues to improve for years after it has been 
 formed, and we can form no conception of the state of per- 
 fection it may possibly attain. The mental apparatus 
 exhibits a capacity for altering its structure and of making 
 itself more perfect. Fifthly, in man, mental actions con- 
 tinue to improve long after the organs concerned in reflex 
 actions have begun to deteriorate. And, lastly, a capacity 
 for mental action of the highest kind is not unfrequently 
 associated with a nervous system below the average, as 
 regards the performance of ordinary reflex acts. It is, 
 therefore, doubtful if mental action is a kind of reflex 
 nervous action. 
 
 Nor can it be maintained that mind is but a consequence 
 of the action of the organs of the senses ; for, although we 
 are dependent upon these for obtaining the knowledge, with 
 which the mind works, the mind itself can have nothing 
 more to do with these or other organs, seeing that they may 
 be entirely removed or destroyed, and the mind work as 
 actively as ever. It cannot obtain new knowledge to 
 work with ; but the perfection of its working is one thing, 
 the amount of knowledge acquired is another, and we 
 know that these things are sometimes even in inverse ratio, 
 one individual being remarkable for the excellence of his 
 mental capacity, but having little knowledge, while another 
 
136 OF MIND. 
 
 has vast information of which he can make but little use for 
 lack of intellect. 
 
 The Brain is not a Gland. Some have looked upon 
 brain as a sort of gland by which thoughts and ideas were 
 formed or secreted, as if thought, which can neither be 
 touched, weighed, measured, nor in any way physically 
 estimated, was a thing allied to the bile, the saliva, or the 
 gastric juice, which are material substances, and can be 
 analyzed and otherwise experimentally studied. It would 
 not be more unreasonable to maintain design or will to be 
 a part of the material framework of the organism, than to 
 assert that mind, like certain kinds of matter, is secreted. 
 Thought is no more material than that peculiar capacity 
 which makes living matter of a certain kind at length 
 become oak, cabbage, dog, man, &c. Nay, it is further 
 removed from the material, for while the property or power 
 referred to influences the very particles of matter, and 
 makes them take up certain fixed and definite positions, 
 thought only produces a sort of evanescent vibration, which 
 results in the expression of ideas which are themselves as 
 immaterial as the thought itself. 
 
 Of Mind as a Function of the Brain. Mental energy 
 has been regarded as the function of the brain, but if it be so 
 it is a function of a very different order from that discharged 
 by other organs. Function implies an act in which will, 
 purpose, design, are not concerned, and in which material 
 changes can be proved to take place. The function of a 
 gland is to produce a secretion. Certain conditions neces- 
 sitate the production of this or that particular secretion, 
 which may vary to some extent, according as the conditions 
 
OF MIND AS A FUNCTION OF THE BRAIN. 137 
 
 are changed. The function of a muscle is to contract and 
 become relaxed, but the material change only occurs in 
 definite directions, necessitated by the structure of the 
 instrument and the force which acts upon it. The exercise 
 of choice is neither possible nor conceivable. So, too, with 
 reference to the function of nerves. These transmit cur- 
 rents. The paths which the currents are to traverse having 
 been determined and formed, the currents are developed 
 and transmitted along the nerves. 
 
 But the discharge of function on the part of the organ 
 of the mind is an operation very different from any of these. 
 The great characteristic in this case is choice selective 
 capacity. If the cells of the liver chose for themselves 
 whether they would secrete bile or not, or determined the 
 kind of bile to be secreted, or the bile chose for itself by 
 which ducts it should pass, whether it would flow quickly, 
 slowly, or not at all ; if the muscle contracted now in one 
 part and now in another, according as it willed if it 
 elected to contract in one direction, and then in a different 
 one ; if the nerve cells decided among themselves which 
 should produce current and which not : if the current chose 
 to run along one fibre at one time and then along another, 
 according to the object it had in view then, but only then, 
 as it seems to me^ could mental activity be regarded as in 
 any way analogous to the function of an organ or of a tissue. 
 To look upon mental action as a mere function of the brain 
 seems to be a fundamental error, and one which those who 
 have really studied the structure and action of secreting 
 organs and nerve organs could not make. 
 
 Mental activity may rather be compared with that mar- 
 
138 OF MIND. 
 
 vellous power, property, or capacity, which enables the liver 
 cell to form what we call bile, which renders possible that 
 change in shape of the ultimate particles of muscle which 
 gives rise to contraction, and determines the change in the 
 ultimate molecules of nerve matter upon which the current 
 depends; but this power is not the function; it is that 
 which alone renders function possible. But even this com- 
 parison is not a true one, for the power above referred to 
 acts as if it were of some necessity, while the remarkable 
 characteristic of mental action is freedom of choice. Cer- 
 tain conditions being present, the liver cell must form bile, 
 the muscle must contract, the nerve cell must give rise to, 
 and the nerve fibre must transmit, the current ; but is it con- 
 ceivable that under certain conditions, actual or supposed, 
 the brain must think ? Is what I am now writing but the 
 result of the distribution of a little extra proportion of 
 certain nutrient constituents and oxygen to my nerve cells 
 which thereby compels me to say all these things ? Have 
 I no choice ? must I say all this, and in the precise way in 
 which it is here said ? All these things would surely have 
 been said in a far better and more perfect manner if the 
 ideas had been formed like a secretion by a healthy gland, 
 independently of experience and without any efforts of my 
 own. All our glands perform their work perfectly when 
 their formation is complete. They require no teaching, and 
 they work without effort, and for the most part without our 
 knowledge. Again, there is nothing in the action of a 
 gland which at all corresponds to the improvement in 
 capacity which results from exercise, so remarkable in the 
 case of cerebral nervous action. The general tissues and 
 
EXPRESSION OF THOUGHTS. 139 
 
 organs, at least of those persons who have reached or 
 passed middle age, performed their functions some years 
 ago as well as, and I fear in some respects even better 
 than they do now. Will has exerted, and can exert upon 
 them, no direct influence. But it is very different with 
 regard to the organ of the mind and the tissues concerned 
 in intellectual action. Every one knows that the degree of 
 perfection which these have attained or will attain is deter- 
 mined in great measure by his own efforts by his own will. 
 The thinking instrument of one individual is not capable of 
 being perfected in the same degree as that of another, but 
 is is quite certain that each may be improved and made to 
 work more perfectly, if its possessor determines that this 
 shall be ; nay, I think I may say, if he will not interfere 
 actively to prevent its improvement, for the natural tendency 
 of the mind is to exercise itself, and, in doing so, the in- 
 strument which it directs necessarily improves. As the 
 mechanism becomes more perfect, the pleasure afforded by 
 its working becomes greater, and to real desire and sustained 
 effort on the part of the mind soon succeeds improvement 
 in the structure of the healthy instrument, by which the 
 attainment of the end desired is rendered possible. 
 
 But no doubt the degree of perfection to which an Jn- 
 dividual can attain in giving expression to his thoughts is 
 limited by the excellence of structure reached by the 
 mechanism upon which thought operates, and this will of 
 course depend very much upon original developmental 
 capacity, but yet in no small degree to the training to which 
 it may have been subjected from early youth when it was 
 in an eminently plastic state, and capable of being so dis- 
 
j 4 o OF MIND. 
 
 posed as to attain ultimately a very high state of efficiency. 
 In order to produce the greatest possible results, the thinking 
 power, the selective capacity, must have at its disposal a 
 mechanism of eminent perfection capable of being im- 
 pressed by and of giving exact expression to the slightest 
 undulations of the matter upon which the mind imme- 
 diately acts. 
 
 Of Mental as compared with Mechanical Action. If a 
 machine could be made which would change from time to 
 time, of its own accord, the kind of work it performed 
 without any alteration being made in its mechanical arrange- 
 ments, a rough comparison might be drawn between such a 
 machine and the brain, but a machine of the kind supposed 
 exists not, and is not conceivable. 
 
 Let us consider if the actions of the mental apparatus 
 exhibit any analogy with those performed by a vast number 
 of highly complex machines so arranged as to be under 
 the influence of one person, this or that being made to 
 work according as he willed ? In order to make the case 
 as strong as possible, we may further suppose every machine 
 to be constantly wound up ready to be brought into opera- 
 tion on the instant, and capable of being stopped with 
 facility. Or can we imagine an immense telegraph system 
 which, besides communicating information, shall be capable 
 of effecting mechanical work ? The supposed machines have 
 no breaks or any of those arrangements to prevent injury or 
 over-action, as in the various kinds of apparatus made by 
 us. And further, our imaginary machine ought to be made 
 of soft material, like brain-matter, and every portion of it 
 should be capable of gradual renovation. Such conditions, 
 
OF MENTAL AND MECHANICAL WORK. 141 
 
 we know, cannot possiby be fulfilled, and therefore no true 
 analogy can exist between any machines made by us and 
 the nervous mechanism concerned in mental action. But 
 admitting that they might be, and without laying stress 
 upon the fact that the nervous apparatus, unlike the machine, 
 keeps itself in order and in working condition if only the 
 rest needful for its repair and renovation be granted, we 
 have yet to find the power, the hand that guides the mental 
 engine, its superintendent, who bids the wheels revolve or 
 stops them, who allows the work to proceed or checks it, as 
 he wills. What sort of guide can we find in the case of the 
 mental machine, where is he seated, and how does he 
 influence the complex apparatus under his immediate indi- 
 vidual care and sole control ? In what spot in the brain 
 are we to search for him ? But do we not know that the 
 structure of the grey matter is such as to preclude the 
 possibility of the existence of anything exhibiting any 
 approach towards any mechanical arrangements known ? 
 We understand its construction sufficiently to justify us in 
 concluding that the nervous matter operates in a manner 
 different in principle from the action of any known me- 
 chanism. 
 
 It has been said that in the brain we have " molecular 
 machinery" built by the sun, but no one has shown what 
 this supposed molecular machinery is like, what is its 
 structure, how it acts, or how it is formed. Molecular 
 machinery is a term which conveys no idea whatever to the 
 mind. No one could draw or make a model of the supposed 
 molecular machinery. We may have molecular matter, and 
 we may have machinery, but there are no machines the 
 
142 
 
 OF MIND. 
 
 molecules of which are active, and there are no molecules 
 which act like machines in fact, there is no molecular 
 machinery, and, it is scarcely necessary to say, nothing what- 
 ever has been built by the sun. The expression is altogether 
 incorrect, is calculated to mislead, and, there is reason 
 to think, has led many to accept conclusions utterly at 
 variance with established truths. The phrase " properties of 
 the molecules" is made to do duty in the same way, and 
 we are told that the properties of a living being existed 
 potentially in the molecules of cosmic vapour of which his 
 body is made; but can we hope to learn much by discussing 
 the possible properties of the hypothetical molecules of 
 hypothetical primitive nebulosity ? The brain we do know 
 something about, and we can learn much more concerning it, 
 but of the primitive nebulosity of ourselves, or of the world 
 we inhabit, we can know nothing and can learn nothing. 
 
 Of Thought as a Result of Chemical Action. Some 
 have expressed the opinion that thought was to be explained 
 by the oxidation of chemical compounds in the brain. 
 Judging from some of the remarks which have been made 
 concerning the supposed chemical changes in nerve matter, 
 one would infer that the brain, instead of consisting of 
 millions of separate anatomical units exhibiting an elaborate 
 structure and arranged in beautiful order, was but a mass of 
 fatty albuminous pulpy material, rich in phosphorus, the 
 action of which was determined by the oxidation of certain 
 of its component elements, particularly the last, the oxygen 
 being carried to the nerve pulp, and the products of chemical 
 change being removed from it by the blood circulating in 
 the vessels freely ramifying in the substance of the pulpy 
 
IS THE BRAIN A VOLTAIC BATTERY? 143 
 
 mass. But although there is no doubt that in the expression 
 of thought chemical changes takes place in the nerve matter, 
 it has by no means been proved, nay, I cannot admit that 
 the arguments advanced render it even probable, that thought 
 itself results from chemical change. It would be more in 
 accordance with what we know to conclude that thought 
 preceded and determined the chemical change occurring in 
 particular particles of the brain matter, than that it was a 
 consequence of it. Chemical change will not alone account 
 for any vital acts whatever. If the movements of part of 
 a mass of living matter in advance of other parts were due 
 to chemical action, such movements would soon be pro- 
 duced in the laboratory, but chemistry has not yet advanced 
 one step in this direction. The special action of any par- 
 ticular apparatus is not usually explained by asserting that 
 it is due to the disintegration and oxidation of its con- 
 stituent parts of wheels and cranks, for example but yet 
 some will have it that the action of the cerebral apparatus 
 is to be satisfactorily accounted for by the disintegration 
 and oxidation of the matter of which it is composed. 
 
 Is the Brain to be looked upon as a Voltaic Battery ? 
 " Another hypothesis, to the legitimacy of which no objec- 
 tion can lie, and one which is well calculated to light the 
 path of scientific inquiry, is that suggested by several 
 recent writers, that the brain, is a voltaic pile, and that each 
 of its pulsations is a discharge of electricity through the 
 system. It has been remarked that the sensation felt by 
 the hand from the beating of a brain bears a strong re- 
 semblance to a voltaic shock, and the hypothesis, if followed 
 to its consequences, might afford a plausible explanation of 
 
OF 
 
 many physiological facts, while there is nothing to discourage 
 the hope that we may in time sufficiently understand the 
 conditions of voltaic phenomena to render the truth of the 
 hypothesis amenable to observation and experiment."* By 
 adducing in its favour such a statement as that about the 
 resemblance of the beating of a brain to a voltaic shock, 
 Mr. Mill upsets his favourite hypothesis, for it is certain that 
 if there be any resemblance between a brain and a voltaic 
 pile it is not of the kind implied. 
 
 But it may be that each little brain cell with its con- 
 nected fibres in some way resembles a minute voltaic battery 
 with its wires \ the matter of which the cell is composed 
 undergoing chemical change, in the course of which slight 
 electrical currents are developed. These being transmitted 
 by the fibres ramifying to different parts exert an influence 
 upon distant tissues and organs among which they ramify. 
 In this case some further arrangement is required by which 
 the action of particular cells and fibres is determined or 
 prevented. Perhaps the closest analogy we can draw 
 between cerebral action and that of an electrical battery is 
 the following : We may suppose in the brain multitudes 
 of minute active galvanic batteries with their delicate con- 
 ducting wires or threads ramifying over extensive tracts 
 of tissue, the action of which is determined by the currents 
 traversing the wires. Situated among these wires or threads, 
 we may suppose little bodies intimately connected with one 
 another which are capable of undergoing alterations in form 
 like the amoeba, white blood-corpuscle, and other forms of 
 living germinal matter. Not the slightest movement, though 
 * Mill's "Logic, "p. 18. 
 
ON EXPRESSING THOUGHTS. 145 
 
 it only amount to gentle quivering, can occur in any part 
 of these bodies without an effect being produced upon the 
 currents which traverse the delicate wires impinging upon 
 different parts of their surfaces. Points in a vast number of 
 circuits differing widely in their ultimate distribution are 
 thus brought, as it were, within the influence of it may be 
 each of these little masses of living matter, and the rate of 
 transmission of the current through many different wires 
 having different destinations and acting upon diverse 
 machinery may thus be affected at the same moment, de- 
 termining a variety of actions. But if it be admitted that 
 the brain in structure and action resembles such an arrange- 
 ment of minute voltaic batteries and conducting wires, we have 
 to explain how all these were formed and made to take up 
 the positions they occupy in relation to one another and to 
 other organs before we can give any satisfactory and com- 
 plete explanation of its action. For the kind of work per- 
 formed by a machine is due to its structure as well as to the 
 forces by which the machine is set in motion. And further, 
 the movements occurring in the little bodies supposed to 
 act upon the currents transmitted by the threads must take 
 place spontaneously. It need scarcely be remarked that 
 any such action in a machine or any mechanical or chemico- 
 mechanical contrivance whatever, is impossible. 
 
 On expressing Thoughts. But in considering the nature 
 of mental nervous action, it is necessary in the first instance 
 to distinguish clearly between the mental action the actual 
 thought ; and its expression. The conversion of thoughts 
 into symbols which others can appreciate is due to a highly 
 elaborate mechanism working in the most perfect manner, 
 
 L 
 
146 OF MIND. 
 
 but it by no means follows that if we understood exactly 
 the manner in which this mechanism worked, we should 
 therefore be able to form an accurate conception of the 
 nature of thought itself. Thoughts and ideas may, and in 
 some cases do, undoubtedly exist, although they cannot be 
 expressed in any way in consequence of the derangement 
 or destruction of the mechanism concerned in expression. 
 And in certain forms of cerebral disease intellectual action 
 is performed, although the mechanism concerned in expres- 
 sion is completely deranged. Ideas are formed by the 
 mind, and although the person can indicate this and con- 
 vince us by his gestures that the idea is in his mind, he is 
 quite unable to express it and make it intelligible to others. 
 The mechanism concerned in expressing thoughts consists 
 of a nervo-muscular apparatus arranged with such consum- 
 mate skill, and occupying so small a space, that it is possible 
 for the mind to form but a most imperfect conception of the 
 arrangement of even a very small part of it. 
 
 It is difficult in many cases to decide to what extent 
 the apparatus concerned in expressing ideas is engaged in 
 silent reasoning and cogitation. When we think over 
 complex matters, and reason upon them, we work with 
 certain mental images or symbols of the things, but cer- 
 tainly not with the verbal expressions of them, nor even with 
 their representatives, but with something far short of either, 
 though sufficiently distinct and exact nevertheless. A great 
 number of these images may be marshalled, as it were, 
 before the mind almost in a moment, and conclusions 
 arrived at which would require the greatest cleverness and 
 a long time accurately to express. And in but too many 
 
ON EXPRESSING THOUGHTS. 147 
 
 instances, after making the greatest efforts, we only succeed 
 in conveying to the minds of others the roughest, coarsest 
 representation of a mental image which to us is distinct, 
 clear, and perfect in all its details. And it is well known 
 how much more fatiguing is the operation of expressing 
 than that of thinking and drawing conclusions mentally. 
 The results of a few hours' thinking, obtained without any 
 perceptible exhaustion and without any conscious effort, 
 may require many days' hard labour to reduce to a form 
 intelligible to other minds, and in this operation the bodily 
 health may suffer, as well as the mental vigour be impaired. 
 It would therefore seem as if thinking and cogitation 
 belonged to the class of actions which I have distinguished 
 as vita/, and which* are performed without waste or change 
 in constitution of material substance, while the expression 
 of thoughts undoubtedly involves material changes of the 
 most active kind. We may roughly compare the first to 
 the acts of an engineer who directs and controls a machine, 
 and the last to the work performed by the machine itself. 
 The engineer or superintendent, it may be said, merely 
 exerts a directing and controlling influence which has 
 nothing whatever to do with the combustion of coals or 
 the falling of the weights, uncoiling of the spring, &c. He 
 contributes nothing that can be weighed or measured 
 towards the work performed by the machine. He can 
 exist without the machine, and the latter may act without 
 him, yet we all know how very much the result produced, 
 as regards both the quantity and the quality of work per- 
 formed, is due to his interference. 
 
 L 2 
 
148 OF MIND. 
 
 OF THE LIVING MATTER CONCERNED IN 
 MENTAL ACTION. 
 
 I will now refer further to the results of anatomical 
 investigation. Near the surface of the grey matter in that 
 extensive layer above the planes in which the caudate 
 nerve-cells are situated, which is generally said to be com- 
 posed of delicate nerve-fibres and " granular matter," I have 
 succeeded in demonstrating multitudes of very small masses 
 of germinal matter lying amongst the finest branches of the 
 nerve fibres. In some places there are aggregations or col- 
 lections of these bodies, which are extremely delicate, and 
 become disintegrated very soon after death. Some sections 
 appear to consist almost entirely of these bodies, so great is 
 their number. They seem to be connected together by very 
 delicate processes of the same transparent material. Masses 
 of germinal matter thus situated are arranged very favour- 
 ably for influencing the fine nerve-fibres which ramify 
 amongst them. The slightest change in their form could 
 not fail to affect nerve currents traversing these fibres, and 
 as we are now well acquainted with the active movements 
 of germinal matter, it is impossible to help suggesting that 
 the movements occurring in these masses of germinal 
 matter produce a direct effect upon the adjacent fibres, 
 and that these vital movements or vibrations occurring 
 in matter of excessive tenuity constitute or are rather the 
 immediate consequences of mental vital action. The direc- 
 tions in which the living matter is made to move by the 
 conscious life-power which directs it, will determine the 
 
CHARACTERS OF LIVING MATTER. 
 
 149 
 
 particular cords of the nerve mechanism to be struck ; 
 special movements expressing the inward ideas then follow. 
 If this be so, mind is the vital power which is associated with 
 this the most exalted form of living or germinal matter, so 
 arranged that the slightest change occurring in it may pro- 
 duce indirectly an effect through the influence of a most 
 elaborate mechanism, brought into very intimate relation 
 with it. Although I am not prepared to deny that the 
 germinal matter of the caudate nerve-cells of the grey 
 matter of the cerebral convolutions is concerned in mental 
 nervous actions, there are many arguments which lead me 
 to think that this is not the material substance which is 
 immediately influenced by the mind, but belongs rather to 
 that wonderful mechanism which is concerned in the 
 expression of thought, and in the conversion of ideas into 
 symbols. 
 
 Of the Character of the Germinal Matter taking part in 
 Mental Operations. Some might anticipate that the matter 
 immediately influenced by mind would exhibit some remark- 
 able structure and arrangement, but those who have studied 
 the characters of living matter in the lowest and highest 
 organisms will not expect to find this, the highest form, 
 exhibiting any structure whatever or possessing any peculiar 
 chemical composition. They will be prepared to find the 
 highest forms composed of the same colourless, structure- 
 less, moving substance which constitutes the living matter 
 of the lowest organisms, and they will look for a difference 
 in power in endowment, not for any material difference. 
 The germinal matter of the embryo of the highest and most 
 complex being in nature cannot be distinguished from that 
 
OF MIND. 
 
 constituting the germ of a very simple creature, nor does 
 the germinal matter of the nerve-cells of the human embryo 
 exhibit any special characters. We should therefore an- 
 ticipate that the highest form of germinal matter known, 
 that which takes part in mental action, would agree in its 
 characters so far as we are able to determine them, with 
 other forms. The difference, vast as it is, is a difference in 
 power, which, however, we can only estimate by the results 
 of its action by the effects produced by it. In the living 
 state this form of living matter is no doubt perfectly trans- 
 parent, of excessive tenuity, and exhibits no characters 
 which would enable us to form any notion of its exalted 
 powers. These powers, properties, or endowments are 
 unquestionably due, not to its chemical composition or to 
 the peculiar arrangement of its particles as compared with 
 other forms of germinal matter, but solely to that wonderful 
 force, property, or power, which I would place under the 
 head of vital power. 
 
 We should anticipate that of all kinds of germinal matter 
 known, that concerned in mental nervous action would be 
 most evanescent and prone to rapid decay and disintegration 
 after death. It is therefore not surprising that in many 
 cases no trace of the delicate masses of germinal matter I 
 have described should be discovered. And I feel sure that 
 what I have been able to demonstrate affords but a very 
 imperfect idea of the real number and arrangement of the 
 masses of germinal matter which exist in the living state. 
 We should expect that change would almost immediately 
 follow the death of the individual, and that this form of 
 germinal matter would be completely broken down long 
 
MENTAL GERMINAL MATTER. 151 
 
 before other kinds existing in the same organism had ceased 
 to manifest vital phenomena. And I may remark that the 
 length of time during which different forms of germinal 
 matter survive the general death of the organism varies 
 greatly some dying very soon, while others live even for 
 days. The capacity for living under altered conditions 
 becomes greater as we descend from the highest towards 
 the lowest kinds of germinal matter, the highest being killed 
 by slight alteration in the surrounding circumstances, while 
 the lowest resist very considerable changes, and for long 
 periods of time. The pus corpuscle and the particle of 
 contagium, both which are descendants of the germinal 
 matter of the organism, retain their vitality under conditions 
 which certainly would have been fatal to the germinal 
 matter from which they sprang.* The power of resisting 
 the destroying influence of varying external conditions seems 
 to increase as germinal matter becomes more and more 
 debased. 
 
 And it is interesting to note here, that this, the highest 
 form of germinal matter, when exposed to altered conditions, 
 dies, instead of, like many lower forms of germinal matter, 
 growing, and mulitiplying, and giving origin to masses 
 of germinal matter possessing different properties. In in- 
 flammation this is, so to say, protected by the lower forms 
 of germinal matter in the immediate neighbourhood, taking 
 upon themselves increased growth and multiplication, and 
 absorbing the excess of nutrient matter present. The 
 germinal matter of the connective tissue of the pia mater 
 
 * See my Report on the Cattle Plague, 1865. 
 
152 OF MIND. 
 
 and adjacent cerebral tissue, that of the vessels and pro- 
 bably also that of the large caudate nerve vesicles of the 
 grey matter, may all be involved by inflammatory change, 
 and the germinal matter taking part in mental nervous 
 action escape. I think that the mechanism concerned in 
 expression may undergo the most serious changes while 
 the highest form of germinal matter may escape, and even 
 retain its integrity; although there is no longer any pos- 
 sibility of proving that this is so, if the nerve apparatus 
 concerned in expression is -deranged or destroyed. 
 
 And I may further remark that different forms of germinal 
 matter in all parts of the organism suffer in inflammation in 
 different degrees and in different order. Generally those 
 which are of least importance, and which, as regards their 
 formative capacity, are lowest in the scale, are the first to 
 suffer. The germinal matter of epithelium and connective 
 tissue are soon affected ; that of the capillaries, including the 
 white blood-corpuscles, follows next in order ; then that of 
 fibrous tissue, cartilage, and bone, the germinal matter of the 
 muscular fibre-cells of the small arteries and veins ; while 
 that belonging to the voluntary muscles, that of the peripheral 
 nerve organs and the peripheral ramification of the nerves 
 is the last to be involved. In like manner the germinal 
 matter of the several tissues entering into the formation 
 of the great central nerve organs, is affected in different 
 order. The connective tissues, fibrous tissues, capillaries, 
 arteries, and veins being involved before the nerve elements 
 themselves are attacked, and of these the lowest as regards 
 function suffer before those which are concerned in the 
 most exalted nerve actions. These last seem to be pre- 
 
LIVING MATTER CONCERNED. 153 
 
 served from damage for a long while, but when at last they 
 become involved, death succeeds, before time has elapsed 
 for any great degree of morbid change to have taken place; 
 while in other cases the germinal matter with the tissue may 
 have completely degenerated without the death of the indi- 
 vidual having been occasioned. 
 
 The living matter concerned in mental operations is 
 that which is last formed, and is probably the highest con- 
 dition which living matter has yet assumed. Like other 
 forms taking part in the formation of the various tissues 
 and organs belonging to the organism, it has been derived 
 by direct descent from the original germinal matter of the 
 embryo. From the growth and subdivision of that primitive 
 mass have resulted, and in definite and prearranged order, 
 numerous forms endowed with marvellously different powers. 
 But the germinal matter which forms cuticle, that which 
 produces fibrous tissue, muscle, nerve or bone, the germinal 
 matter which gives rise to biliary secretion, to the saliva, 
 and to the gastric juice, as well as that which takes part in 
 mental nervous action have, so to say, one common parent- 
 age ; and if, as these several forms are evolving themselves, 
 or are being evolved, the conditions which alone render pos- 
 sible progress towards their highest state becomes modified, 
 the attainment of perfection is prevented. Such cases are 
 familiar to us under the term arrested development, in which, 
 up to a certain period of life, everything seems to have 
 proceeded correctly, but then in consequence of some dis- 
 turbing action modifying the process of nutrition and affect- 
 ing the division and subdivision of the germinal matter, 
 the structures which would at length have resulted in due 
 
154 
 
 OF MIND. 
 
 course can never be formed. Of all the changes originating 
 in this way, those affecting the germinal matter taking part 
 in the development of the higher parts of the nervous 
 system of man lead to the most disastrous results. That 
 gradual development of the mental powers after the indi- 
 vidual has ceased to grow, which is one of the most re- 
 markable of the characters by which man is marked off 
 from the lower animals, is rendered impossible, and the 
 mental powers of the child or of the infant remain asso- 
 ciated with the organism of the adult. 
 
 The new powers which germinal matter acquires as 
 development advances arise in some way as the new 
 centres (nuclei, nucleoli) originate in pre-existing centres, 
 when, it may be said, matter comes under the influence of 
 the vital immaterial agency, and sets out upon a new 
 course which has been appointed. How the new powers 
 which it has acquired are communicated to it, it is as im- 
 possible to suggest as it is to explain how these new centres 
 originate. And it may be asked what is to be understood 
 by " centre," for it is obvious that the centre demonstrated 
 by low powers has within it numerous centres, as may be 
 proved by examination under glasses magnifying very 
 highly, and there is reason to believe that if our powers 
 were increased ten, twenty, or a hundred-fold, we should 
 approach but a little nearer to the unrealisable actual 
 centre; and I can conceive that in the highest forms of 
 germinal matter new centres of living matter are constantly 
 welling up, as it were, in already existing centres, having 
 within themselves infinite and inexhaustible power for the 
 endowment of new centres. 
 
EFFECTS OF EXERCISE. 1 5 5 
 
 The germinal matter taking part in mental action, like 
 other forms, is no doubt liable to defective as well as irregular 
 and monstrous growth, even during and after the adult period 
 of life. These changes, which may be temporary or per- 
 manent, are probably more under the immediate influence 
 of the will than is the case as regards changes in other 
 forms of germinal matter. But there can, I imagine be 
 little doubt that, just as by exercise up to, and in many 
 cases even after, the middle period of life, we are enabled 
 to increase the power of certain muscles and the perfec- 
 tion of certain movements which are associated with in- 
 creased formation of nerves and nerve-cells in the nerve 
 centre governing them : so, by habitually indulging in 
 certain trains of thought, we may perhaps effect the 
 increase of the germinal matter concerned, until at last 
 this preponderates so much over other portions taking part 
 in other kinds of mental action that it alone is exercised, 
 while the rest remains hardly active at all or quite dor- 
 mant. Every lunatic asylum affords what I conceive to be 
 examples of this, and it is not impossible in certain 
 instances to distinguish the cases in which the mental 
 living matter itself is deranged from those in which the 
 mechanism concerned in the expression of ideas is the 
 seat of disease. On the other hand, what remarkable 
 instances do we meet with of the gradual but continuous 
 improvement of the mental powers even in advanced life, 
 where they have been subjected to unremitting but judi- 
 cious exercise from early youth onwards ! 
 
 The mental excitement and incoherence, followed by 
 complete suspension of mental powers, which occur in 
 inflammation and other conditions where the germinal 
 
156 OF MIND. 
 
 matter takes up an abnormal proportion of nutrient mate- 
 rial, are readily explained, as are also those cases in which 
 impaired intellectual action follows as a consequence of 
 the disease. Where the morbid change has proceeded to a 
 considerable extent, there may be permanent impairment, 
 while in cases where only slight change has occurred, 
 only temporary derangement may result. 
 
 Of the Nature of Will, and of the Life of Germinal 
 Matter taking part in Mental' Operations. Many considera- 
 tions lead me to conclude that will, so far from being a 
 result of certain chemical changes induced in matter, should 
 rather be regarded as the power which influences the material 
 particles and causes them to move and take up new positions. 
 It seems to me that this power is of the same order as that 
 which induces the movements in germinal matter, and which 
 I have ventured to call vital power. I conceive that the 
 change in form of the germinal matter is a consequence of 
 some influence exerted upon the particles immediately pre- 
 ceding their movement. This active cause, the nature of 
 which we know nothing, and which gives rise, we know not 
 how, to material changes which, in the case of some of the 
 lower forms of living matter, can be seen distinctly, con- 
 stitutes the vital power of the germinal matter. This is, as 
 it were, the starting point of all those complex phenomena 
 which occur whenever a voluntary, act is performed, and, as 
 regards the material changes in the germinal matter con- 
 cerned in mental operations, is the mind. The germinal or 
 living matter may be said to be the domicile of the ego; 
 but so rough are our methods of investigation that when 
 we commence to search for the ego we destroy its habitation, 
 and the ego escapes whither we cannot follow it. The par- 
 
NA TURE OF WILL. 1 5 7 
 
 tides of the matter which were directed and changed by it 
 
 may be directed and changed in new ways ; but it is absurd 
 
 to think we can discover the directing, changing ego in the 
 
 dead and disintegrated matter which remains after it has 
 
 gone, and equally absurd to deny its existence because we 
 
 cannot find it, or to affirm that it is mere force which has 
 
 changed its mode or form. Certainly the dead matter we 
 
 see and touch may in some sense be regarded as having 
 
 once formed a part of the material framework of the living 
 
 being, but it was then in a very different state, for that 
 
 which gave it body and made it what it was has since gone. 
 
 To assert that the material elements of the grey matter of 
 
 the brain of a dead man are all that constituted the active 
 
 living organ of the mind, would, indeed be strange. It is 
 
 that which has escaped that alone acted through the living 
 
 matter upon the mechanism which is subordinated to it. 
 
 But the mechanism may work although in a different way 
 
 if affected by other influences. A chance breath of air 
 
 may throw the strings of the lyre into vibration and longing 
 
 listeners may even think they hear the measured strains 
 
 they know so well, but it is soon discovered how different 
 
 are the accidental unmeaning notes from the harmonious 
 
 cadences in which the successive undulations of the mind 
 
 were wont to be expressed. Again, the instrument may 
 
 be deranged, in which case not a conception of the most 
 
 vivid imagination can make itself known. The learned 
 
 declare that an instrument is hopelessly out of order, and 
 
 consider that that is all that need be thought or said about 
 
 the matter. 
 
 If my conclusions tend towards the truth, it almost 
 follows that before we can be in a position to form an 
 
158 OF MIND. 
 
 opinion upon the nature of a mental process we must at 
 least be able to form a conception of the actions which 
 immediately precede the observed changes of form in a 
 mass of very simple living matter that can be easily subjected 
 to investigation, and of the antecedent change which determines 
 these actions. But unfortunately at present we have no means 
 of investigating this most important question. We cannot 
 explain why one part of a living mass should move in ad- 
 vance of another. To say the movement must be the con- 
 sequence of some antecedent phenomenon will only satisfy 
 those who are content to receive arbitrary assertions in 
 place of explanations. The supposed antecedent phe- 
 nomenon is unknown, and is, perhaps, in the present state of 
 things, unknowable. It is probably altogether wrong to use 
 the word phenomenon here at all, the antecedent in this case 
 not being a phenomenon. Until the movements of the living 
 matter of an amoeba or a white blood-corpuscle have been 
 satisfactorily accounted for, it is not likely we shall be able 
 to arrive at any positive conclusions concerning the nature 
 of the actual changes in the living matter which determine 
 mental nervous actions, but it is surely a step in advance if 
 it is rendered probable that these are intimately related to 
 the vital changes in germinal or living matter. The argu- 
 ments I have advanced in favour of the view that the highest 
 mental actions are associated with vital movements, and 
 are, in fact vital actions occurring in living matter, appear 
 to me to be justified by the facts I have adduced ; and 
 although there seems to be at present no possibility of 
 actual proof, I venture to think that the evidence upon 
 which my view rests, indirect though it be, will not be 
 regarded as inconclusive. 
 
NOTE. 
 
 *** Since the first edition of this work was published, Mr. Huxley's 
 essay on the " Physical Basis of Life," has been submitted to a very just 
 but clear and searching philosophical criticism by Mr. James Hutchison 
 Stirling, of Edinburgh, whose excellent treatise I very strongly recom- 
 mend my readers carefully to study. I should have taken from it many 
 extracts, but the work is easily obtained, and readers should see it in a 
 complete form. Mr. Stirling concludes in the following words, "In 
 short the whole position of Mr. Huxley, that all organisms consist 
 alike of the same life matter, which life matter is, for its part, due to 
 chemistry, must be pronounced untenable nor less untenable the 
 materialism he would found on it." 
 
 " As regards Protoplasm in relation to Professor 
 Huxley's essay on the Physical Basis of Life," by James 
 Hutchison Stirling, F.R.C.S., LL.D. Edinburgh : William 
 Blackwood and Sons. is. 
 
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