24 JOURNAL OF THE [April, 



chemical attractions ;" and, moreover, " that the non-living 

 matter is the seat of the physical and chemical phenomena 

 occurring in living beings, but that the vital actions occur in 

 the living matter only." "^ 



But, beside furnishing the occasion for greater particularity in 

 the exposition of his theory of life. Doctor Beale's newer presen- 

 tation of the general subject opened the way to interesting and 

 somewhat novel ideas concerning death. He accordingly 

 undertook to convince us that "all form, colour, structure, 

 mechanism, observed at a later period in the life-history of living 

 things, result from changes in this primary structureless, colour- 

 less material, * * * * which looks like mere jelly, or a little 

 clear gum or syrup ;" and that these changes — these transitions 

 from formative to formed — are universally accompanied by a 

 cessation of life. They are the converse of the process by 

 which dead pabulum becomes living protoplasm, and all vital 

 action on one side and all organic form on the other result from 

 the swing of the pendulum to and fro, — the down beat being no 

 less important than the up beat. According to his conception 

 " all bioplasm must die. By its death marvellous things are 

 produced and wonderful acts are performed. Every form in 

 nature, — leaves, flowers, trees, shells ; every tissue, — hair, skin, 

 bone, nerve, muscle, — results from the death of bioplasm. 

 * * * * Once dead, bioplasm ceases to be bioplasm and is 

 resolved into other things ; but these things that slxq for /ned czn- 

 not be put together again to reform the bioplasm. They may 

 be taken up by new bioplasm, and so converted into living mat- 

 ter ; but the bioplasm that existed once can never exist again." 



Concerning the origin of bioplasm, Doctor Beale offers no 

 very distinctive belief. He says, however, that " whether one 

 primitive mass of bioplasm was caused to be, in the first creation, 

 or five, or fifty, or whether thousands or millions, rushed simul- 

 taneously or successively into being, is open to discussion ; but 

 the arguments in favour of the view that a minute mass of struc- 

 tureless bioplasm was the first form of living thing are so over- 

 whelming that they must carry conviction." 



A few years before these passages were written. Doctor Beale 

 had first proposed, as an exclusive name for the " living or self- 



'« " Bioplasm ; an Introduction to the Study of Physiology and Medicine.'" 

 London, 1878. 



