188 DR. BEALE, ON CONTRACTILITY. 
to be altered or converted into other*forms of force. It is a 
power that may be transmitted from particle ‘to particle, 
or that may cease its manifestation for ever. How it originated 
we have not the slightest knowledge. We only know that 
now it is always propagated from particle to particle, “and 
that it cannot be transferred to particles at a distance. Heat 
is but one of the conditions under which this wonderful 
power manifests itself, not the power itself. 
Contractility is a, property of muscle. Contraction and 
elasticity are properties of fibrin, just as hardness is a pro- 
perty of horn, or nail, or bone, &c.; but motion, increase, 
formation, as manifested in germinal matter, are transmitted 
from particles that possess them, to particles of matter that 
do not. Muscle does not transmit its contractile property nor 
yellow elastic tissue, its elasticity, to matter which is devoid of 
these characteristics. Hence, I distinguish the movements of 
germinal or living matter from the movements of muscular 
tissue; and, surely, I may correctly term them vital move- 
ments until some one proyes that similar movements occur in 
matter which is not alive. 
CONCLUSIONS. 
1. The movements of a mass of germinal or living matter, 
and muscular contraction, are phenomena essentially different. 
2. The contractile material of the muscle does not cor- 
respond to the moving matter of a mucus-corpuscle, white 
blood-corpuscle, amceba, &c.; but the so-called nucleus of 
the muscle alone corresponds to this moving matter. 
3. The movements in living or germinal matter are vital 
movements, for no movements like them occur in any form 
of matter which is not alive, and which has not been 
obtained from a living organism. 
4, Muscular and nervous action are accompanied by 
chemical change, and correspond to a certain definite 
amount of work, which may be represented as heat, motion, 
&c., but there is no evidence to show that the vital move- 
ments described, perform work, are accompanied by chemical 
change, or can be converted into any form or mode of 
ordinary force. otter eee 
It will be noticed, that in this paper, I have discussed 
simply the vital actions of germinal or living matter.. 1 have 
not spoken of the “life” of man, of an animal; or of an 
entire plant. The phenomena of which such “ life” is made 
up, make it very different from the “ life” of germinal matter. 
