3 2 



PROTOPLASM. 



parts have already ceased to live, although they may per- 

 form important service of a passive kind, and be connected 

 with the matter that is actually alive. Even in the smallest 

 organisms which exhibit the simplest characters, as well as 

 in every texture of the most highly complex beings, we can 

 demonstrate two kinds of matter, differing in most remarkable 

 particulars from one another ; or perhaps it would be more 

 correct to say, matter in two different states manifesting 

 different properties and exhibiting differences in appearance, 

 chemical composition, &c., and physical characters. This 

 distinction is essential and invariable, and although by calling 

 everything entering into the composition of a living being 

 by the same name, all differences of state, structure, and 

 composition may be ignored, these cannot be destroyed ; 

 and every one who really desires to learn anything about 

 the structure, growth, and actions of living things will find 

 himself compelled to admit these differences, and will at once 

 proceed to investigate how they are to be accounted for. 



In my lectures at the Royal College of Physicians, in 

 the spring of 1860, I demonstrated in various tissues of 

 plants, animals, and man in health and disease, matter in 

 the two different states above referred to, and I showed 

 that every normal and abnormal cell or elemental unit of 

 every tissue capable of growth, or possessing formative 

 power, invariably consisted of matter in these states or 

 conditions : i. Living, active, formative ; 2. Lifeless, pas- 

 sive, formed. In my preparations these were at once dis- 

 tinguished, the first being artificially coloured with carmine, 

 while the matter in the last condition was unchanged. 



As investigation proceeded, I became more and more 



i 



