156 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 



of contractile tissue may have been produced, the ger- 

 minal matter which formed it may not have altered in 

 bulk/ Then, concerning the nature and mode of for- 

 mation of nerve fibres, Dr. Beale says : c The nerve 

 fibre is composed of formed material, which is structu- 

 rally continuous with the formed material of the nerve 

 cells of the nerve centres. A nerve fibre at an early 

 period of development consists of a number of oval 

 masses of germinal matter linearly arranged. As deve- 

 lopment 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.' 



Dr. Beale's dictum that the matter which he calls 

 ' formed material ' is dead, we regard as a singularly 

 foundationless hypothesis, the maintenance of which is 

 beset with difficulties. If muscles and nerves perform 

 work, such functional activity must be attended by 

 tissue changes in their very substance. How then is 

 repair to be effected ? Not after the fashion in which 

 living tissues are renovated, for these, according to 

 Dr. Beale, are dead, and therefore cannot be amenable 

 to the laws which govern the repair of living structures. 

 I have no faith, however, in the ability of carmine to 

 discriminate the not-living from the Living, and can 

 only state my total inability to accept the opinion of 

 Dr. Beale when he says : c The difference between 

 germinal or living matter and the pabulum which 

 nourishes it, on the one hand, and the formed material 



