I30 



ANDREWS. 



seen in a new phase, for peculiarly suitable unusual secretions 

 are poured forth as antidotal or cleansing agents. Local 

 efforts of the substance to expel or escape or counteract inju- 

 rious materials can cause disease or even death of the organ- 

 ism, which then must be counted an indirect and not a direct 

 result of the inimical agents. 



With regard to a taking up by living cells of useless or even 

 harmful substances, especially during artificial experiment, cer- 

 tain things are to be thought of. First, that the conditionings 

 of the living substance must mentally be kept separate from 

 itself. The foam structure, or local inclusions, may constrain 

 areas into receiving such matter. And since alveolar cavities, 

 even those of Biitschli's structure are used to hold waste, 

 inutile, and excess, as well as harmful or unsuitable matter, 

 entrance of the latter does not necessarily mean their selec- 

 tion, or even their acceptance, by the living substance. It is 

 to be urged also, that areas which for their guidance in taking 

 up materials depend on certain specialised tactile senses, may 

 be misled through these, whereas further within the cell or 

 organism lie other local specialised centres whose selection 

 may be guided by chemical reactions. What concerns us in 

 all these cases is the subsequent action of the living continu- 

 ous substance as such, or as organism, with respect to these 

 intrusive things. // is therefore, not alone physical reception of 

 certain thiiigs by protoplasm in areas, which is to be tmderstood 

 as true siibstance selection, — but the full value of the most 

 intimate processes, and especially the final verdict, of the living 

 substance as such. 



That any nice adjustment of combined chemical and physi- 

 cal conditions must be open to injury from chemical and 

 physical violence — to consequent maladjustment which may 

 become disintegration — is certain. That the living substance 

 as knowable by us expresses an intricate, delicate, and most 

 unstable set of molecular adjustments whose complexity is far 

 beyond our analysis, can hardly be doubted. Is it not the most 

 noteworthy thing that, in spite of this, it manifests so strong and 

 ■persistent a hold upon its individuality ; that it can withstand 

 such shocks and respond to such innumerable and kaleidoscopic 



