1 88 1. 37 Trans. N. Y. Ac. Sci. 



maintain and extend the same theory, of which he thus expresses him- 

 self,' "the protoplasm or sarcode theory, that is, the theoiy that this 

 albuminous material is the original active substratum of all vital phe- 

 nomena may, perhaps, be considered one of the greatest achievements of 

 modern biology, and one of the richest in results." And, says Dr)'s- 

 dale^ " if the grand theory of the one true living matter was, as we 

 have seen, hypothetically advanced by Fletcher, yet the merit of the dis- 

 covery of the actual anatomical representation of it belongs to Beale, in 

 accordance with the usual and right award of the title of discoverer to 

 him alone who demonstrates truths by proof and fact. ^ ^ ^ The 

 cardinal point in the theory of Dr. Beale is not the destruction of the 

 completeness of the cell of Schwann as the elementary unit, for that 

 was already accomplished by others, * 4- * but ^hat, from the 

 earliest visible speck of germ, up to the last moment of life, in every 

 living thing, plant, animal, and protist, the attribute of life is restricted 

 to one anatomical element alone, and this homogeneous and structure- 

 less ; while all the rest of the infinite variety of structure and composi- 

 tion, solid and fluid, which make up living beings, is merely passive and 

 lifeless formed material. This distinction into only two radically dif- 

 ferent kinds of matter, viz., the living or germinal matter and the formed 

 or lifeless material, gives the clue whereby he clears up the confusion 

 into which the cell-doctrine had fallen, and gives the point of departure 

 for the theory of innate independent life of each part, which the cell- 

 theory had aimed at, but failed to make good. The one true and only 

 living matter — called by Beale germinal matter, or bioplasm — is de- 

 scribed as ' always transparent and colorless, and as far as can be 

 ascertained by examination with the highest powers, perfectly structure- 

 less ; and it exhibits those same characters at every period of its ex- 

 istence.' * * * " 



"The name of bioplasm," continues Drysdale, "given by Beale, or 

 protoplasm, as indicating the ideal living matter, cannot be given to any 

 substance displaymg rigidity in any degree : nor to anything exhibiting 

 a trace of structure to the finest microscope : nor to any liquid : nor to 

 any substance capable of true solution. Thus ' nothing that lives is 

 alive in every part,' but as long as any individual part or tissue is pro- 

 perly called living, it is only so in virtue of particles of the above- 

 described protoplasm, freely distributed among, or interwoven with the 

 textures so closely that there is scarcely any part, i\-^ of an inch in size, 

 but contains its portion of protoplasm. Thus we see realized the 



' Monographic derMoneren," Jenaiscke Zeitschrift /. Medicinutid Naturiuissenschaft ^ 

 i868, iv, I ; translation in Quarterly Jourtial oj Microscopical Science^ London, 1869, vol. 

 ix, p. 223. 



^ Loc. cit.^ 42, et seq. 



