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deed, was not to show that it or any other fanciful conjecture was impossible, 

 but that many circumstances prevented us from accepting it as true, while the 

 facts which Pangenesis was invented to explain were to be accounted for by 

 another view which did no such violence to the reason as the hypothesis in ques- 

 tion. 



Mr Lowne understood the President to say that the blood corpuscles passed 

 through the vessels by invisible longitudinal fissures ; he did not admit that 

 such fissures existed, but if it were granted they did, what would be said of the 

 German view of pore canals through wbich pangenetic particles might pass out 

 of cells ? He could not see, also, the necessity that cells like those of dentine or 

 bone should give off pangenetic gemmules in the adult state, because they had 

 given them off while in a growing state, as such gemmules could inherit the ten- 

 dency to reproduce older conditions, just as the children of young parents in- 

 herited the tendency to produce wrinkles and grey hair in after life, like those 

 of their parents. Lastly he did not think any one could look at the solid and 

 fluid portions of a cell and say where one began and the other terminated ; a 

 fact easily observed in the Protozoa and Infusoria. 



The President concluded as follows : — He had intended to have raised some 

 objections to the terms employed by Mr. Lowne that evening. He considered 

 one great object of the members of the Club was to reduce everything to its 

 simplest possible expression. Many scientific authorities who had written dur- 

 ing the last few years had altogether neglected this principle of simplicity in 

 teaching natural knowledge. Why should the word leucocyte be used, instead 

 of ' ' colourless blood corpuscle," which was more correct, better known, and had 

 a less harsh sound ? The word leucocyte would be recognised as being derived 

 from two Greek words, signifying white and cavity or cell, but he was sure Mr. 

 Lowne would agree with him in the statement that the interesting corpuscle in 

 question was neither white nor was it a cell. The grand thing for the spread of 

 scientific knowledge was, in his opinion, to employ terms as simple as possible, 

 and he could not help thinking that if Mr. Lowne had, in referring to those bodies, 

 used the expression " colourless blood corpuscles," or spoken of them as bioplasts, 

 as being composed of living, growing matter, and multiplying as all living matter 

 did, it would have been better. The term leucocyte was so austere that, like 

 many others, it might deter students from enquiring further. It was very ob- 

 jectionable, and had already excited a desire to coin others equally so. A friend 

 of his had suggested that to the corpuscles in the muscles of the body the term 

 sarcocytes should be applied. This would give rise to osteocytes, neurocytes, 

 encephalocytes, &c. Besides, as he had shown, the term leucocyte itself was a 

 complete misnomer, for it had been applied to something quite colourless, that 

 was not hollow, had no cell wall, and possessed none of the properties of the 

 true cell. 



