3IO HOW TO WORK 



the different textures and organisms in anatomical structure, physical 

 properties, and chemical composition. 



The matter which is coloured is, broadly, that which has been 

 hitherto termed in different textures cell, nucleus, cell contents, proto- 

 plasm, endoplast, corpuscle (in some cases) ; while that which remains 

 unchanged is that which is known as intercellular fluid or substance, cell 

 u>a/l, membrane, fibre, periplastic substance, &c. When the carmine 

 fluid is used properly, the so-called cell, or in some cases the greater 

 part of it, and the nucleus, or the latter only, are coloured, while the 

 outer part of the cell and intercellular substance remain colourless, 

 or are only tinted very faintly. It is often possible to demonstrate 

 zones of colour one within the other, the innermost being invariably 

 coloured most intensely. 



By comparative observations upon the same tissues, at different 

 periods of growth, a continuous but gradually altering relation has 

 been demonstrated to exist between the so-called cell wall, intercellular 

 substance, cell contents, &c., and the nucleus. I have adduced very 

 many observations which seem to me to establish the important 

 point that all the formed material was once in the state of the matter 

 which receives the colour. So that in the formation of muscle, for 

 instance, from the lifeless nutrient pabulum in the blood, the matter 

 which is to become muscle passes through these different con- 

 ditions : 



1. That of a soluble nutrient matter, or pabulum, 



2. Germinal matter (nucleus), 



3. Imperfectly developed formed material, 



4. Fully developed formed material, muscular contractile tissue, 



5. Disintegrated formed material, which becomes slowly reduced 

 to a soluble state, and is converted, by oxydation, into new sub 

 stances, some of which pass away, while others in their turn become 

 pabulum for other kinds of germinal matter, such as white blood 

 corpuscles and lymph corpuscles, which are therefore the agents 

 concerned in the removal of the disintegrated material. 



It will be seen that one very important fact gained by this enquiry, 

 is the positive distinction between the active living growing matter of 

 all tissues, and the matter which is formed, or results from the changes 

 occurring in the former. This fact I endeavoured to establish in my 

 lectures, given at the Royal College of Physicians, in April, 1861. 

 I have since worked out changes occurring during the growth and 

 formation of many tissues in detail, and I believe the above positions 

 may now be considered as fully established. 



The material stained by carmine must be regarded as matter in a 

 transition state. It is not tissue, for it lives and grows, but it may at 



