THE LIVING SUBSTANCE. 5 



slight variations in these latter, or even in the physiological 

 state of the observer, served to hide important facts. 



[i] All observations were made upon the living material, and 

 in many instances accompanied by, and compared with, "preser- 

 vation methods" of approved sorts. These latter served chiefly 

 to show their own inadequacy, acting either as stimuli or as 

 relaxers of the substance ; so that, although one might fix beau- 

 tiful structures, and even so delicate structures as those figured 

 by Butschli, one had not strictly the original structure, certainly 

 not throughout the mass. The impossibility of getting reagents 

 to fix simultaneously all parts of even small masses is a great, 

 a serious drawback ; even hot osmic fumes failing often to do 

 more than create a compound of locally altered states of the 

 irritable and active substance. 



I have convinced myself that " preservatives " fix for us little 

 of the true structure of the living substance, and can, at best, 

 keep for us grosser relations, of a mixed sort in point of time ; 

 hiding an infinite complexity of form, and destroying perforce 

 those infinitely delicate relations whose fleeting harmonies 

 make up life phenomena. I speak of "preservation methods" 

 of the past and present, not of the future. 



They have been invaluable in awakening us to the knowledge 

 that something we had not known lay hid in the substance. 



The oracle was delivered to us in colored hieroglyphs, to 

 which as yet we have no Rosetta stone. Do these speak of 

 structural, or of chemical, differences in the living substance t 



It has been thought they tell of both. Our judgment as to 

 the results in individual cases must undergo revision, possibly 

 suffer reversion. 



[2] For do such chemical differences as seem to be registered 

 pertain to the actual living substance ; or merely to the sub- 

 stances mingled with it, and forming the environment it creates 

 locally for itself } 



[3] Again, may not a seeming chemical difference be, per- 

 haps, merely a difference of accessibility to these substances, 

 grounded on local states, as of viscosity, in a lamellar substance } 



[4] And must we, for such states, appeal to final physical, 

 that is, molecular, conditions, or causes ; or can we refer them 



