see rk ee of Disease Gerins. 197 
which the amceba, white blood-corpuscle, and other forms of living 
matter consist. With high powers the slightly opalescent appear- 
ance may be detected, and by careful focussing, the minute particles 
of living matter will be brought into view. ‘The movements of the 
fluid may therefore be compared with the movements of the living 
bioplasm of an amceba. In the circulating juice of many plants 
similar appearances may be observed, and in the blood and cireu- 
lating fluid of all animals, and in man himself, minute particles of 
living matter are to be demonstrated in immense multitudes. These 
are diffused through the fluid, and to them is probably due the 
movement of the contents of the finer vessels and spaces. This 
constituent of the blood, seen with such difficulty that its presence 
is not yet admitted by observers, is probably the most important, 
for its increase or diminution may occasion serious disease or death. 
This almost impalpable living moving matter is the seat of many 
very important changes, and is perhaps influenced before any other 
constituents of the body when certain poisons and disease germs 
find their way into the blood. “ Protection,” after successful 
vaccination, and the escape from a second attack, which is the rule 
in the case of many contagious fevers, is most likely brought about 
by changes induced in the living matter under consideration. 
In health it is upon this material that the coagulable property 
of the blood is mainly dependent, and it is this which in great part 
undergoes conversion into what we call fibrin, when the blood is 
removed from the living vessels or “dies.” If destroyed it may, 
under favourable circumstances, be renewed by the appropriation 
of nutrient matter. The white blood-corpuscles are intimately 
related to this living bioplasm, and take part in its formation. I 
believe they bear to it the same relation as the “nucleus” in the 
cell of Vallisneria bears to the living particles suspended in the fluid, 
while the red blood-corpuscles of the blood correspond to the chlo- 
rophyl particles in the rotating fluid contents of the vegetable cell. 
Attention will presently be drawn to the vast importance of this 
living fibrin-forming matter in various exudations, and it will be 
found that a simple explanation of many most important morbid 
phenomena may be given. Now in the fluid exudation or virus 
which produces a “poisoned wound ” when inoculated we also find 
minute particles of living bioplasm. 
Many arguments will be advanced herein in favour of the view 
that the virulence of the poison is due entirely to the living par- 
ticles, and not to the fluid in which these are suspended. In the 
case of some of these poisonous fluids we are able to study the 
production of the contagious virus, and we may even in some cases 
succeed in tracing out the manner in which the material with the 
. wonderful poisonous property originates. 
In some forms of inflammation of serous membranes the process 
P2 
