Dll. BEALE, OX THE TISSUES. 193 



tliey belong. Their tendency to divide is due to the same 

 forcCj which compels them to move constantly /rom the centre 

 where they became living. Each particle is preceded by 

 those which became living before it, and succeeded by others 

 which were animated since it commenced to exist. This 

 movement outwards occurs in the living particles of all 

 living beings, and its rapidity determines the rate at which 

 the structure grows. 



The particles, in passing outwards, gradually lose" their 

 power of animating matter ; and at last, having arrived at a 

 considerable distance from the centre, where they became 

 living, undergo most important changes, and are resolved 

 into substances having properties very different from those 

 which the living particles possessed during the earlier periods 

 of their existence. The particles now cease to move ; they 

 lose their active powers, and perhaps coalesce to form a firm, 

 hard substance, like the external membrane of the mildew; 

 or they may become resolved into compounds which are 

 completely soluble in fluid, which are perhaps very soon de- 

 composed into substances* of a much simpler composition. 

 This outer substance, resulting from changes occurring in the 

 oldest particles of the inner matter, is the formed material ; 

 and the living matter within, which may increase in the most 

 rapid manner, which gives rise to every tissue, and is in fact 

 the growing living part of every structure, from which all 

 new structures originate, is the germinal matter. The cha- 

 racters of the formed material depend upon the powers of 

 the particles of the germinal matter, and it is affected by the 

 conditions under which these grew. The powers of the 

 germinal matter depend upon those of the germinal matter 

 which gave it origin. As the composition of the formed 

 material depends entirely upon the properties of the germinal 

 matter which produced it, the substances resulting from 

 the disintegration of the formed material, and the com- 

 pounds resulting from the action of oxygen on these are 

 peculiar, and differ materially from each other, just as the 

 properties of the formed material differ in the various tissues 

 and in diflerent living beings. It is, therefore, very doubtful 

 if these substances will ever be produced independently of 

 living matter. Undoubtedly, if the component elements 

 could be brought within the sphere of each other's action 

 under the same condition as in the living organism, the same 

 compound would result ; but, as these conditions cannot be 

 brought about artificially, and cannot be conceived to exist 

 except in living bodies, this is not saying much. Every living 

 particle can alone spring from pre-existing particles; and 



