318 



of the bioplasm varies according to the scarcity or abundance 

 of the nutrient material, and to the facility of its access. The 

 bioplasts (white blood-corpuscles) of the blood increase in 

 number, when the fluid in which they are suspended moves 

 slowly as at an early period of life before the propelling 

 apparatus is fully developed, or at any period of life when 

 the circulation is retarded from any cause whatever. This 

 remarkable growth and multiplication of the blood bioplasts 

 seems to be determined by the altered condition under Avhich 

 life is carried on without necessarily any derangement of the 

 health. The fact of the increase of the white blood-corpuscles 

 in apparently opposite conditions of the system is thus very 

 easily explained. A hybernating animal cannot be said to 

 be suffering from disease, but nevertheless the blood in his 

 capillary vessels contains a vastly increased number of 

 bioplasts, and could hardly be distinguished from the blood 

 stagnating in consequence of something impeding the circu- 

 lation — a state of things which would be rightly regarded as 

 disease. In this part of the inquiry we seem to be on the very 

 confines of disease ; in a sort of border land where the 

 healthy process so gradually and imperceptibly shades into 

 the morbid process that it would not be possible to draw a 

 distinction in words, nor would the appearances which may 

 be demonstrated to the eye enable us to define with greater 

 exactness the special condition. In fact, up to this point 

 there is no real difference. The state of things I have 

 described if it continues, and if it leads to other changes, 

 is disease. If, on the other hand, the circulation soon 

 returns to its normal rate, the increased numbers of white 

 blood-corpuscles soon pass into the circulation and are lost 

 in the mass of the blood where they undergo further changes, 

 and there is no further evidence of even a temporary dis- 

 turbance of the healthy condition than is afforded by some 

 slight disturbance of the nerves, giving rise, perhaps, in 

 the case of man and the higher animals to slight pain, which 

 soon passes off, and often escapes notice altogether. 



From Health to Disease. 



I HAVE endeavoured to show that the only material in the 

 organisms of living beings caj^able of growth and multiplica- 

 tion is that which has been termed bioplasm, germinal, or 

 living matter. In fully formed tissues the proportion of this 

 is very small. Still, all active change depends ujion this 

 living matter, however little there may be. If there be none, 

 the tissue is as incapable of undergoing active changes as if 

 it did not foim a part of the body. The smallest particle of 



