Feb. 1902.] BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDIXBUEGH 171 



katabolic inertia; examples are numerous, e.g. the respiratory 

 centres emitting impulses even alter evisceration in IMarmot 

 (Marckwald), the post-mortem continuation of intestinal 

 peristalsis, the medullated nerves remaining excitable three 

 to four days after severance from the central nervous 

 system, the growth of hairs, and all cases of local cell-life 

 after death — spermatozoa in the vesicuLe seminales, cilia 

 in trachea, etc., and amoeboid leucocytes generally. All 

 cases of post-mortem bio-chemical change are illustrations 

 of katabolic inertia, e.g. the excised liver continuing to 

 convert glycogen to dextrose, the isolated and bloodless 

 muscle producing COo in atmosphere of N or H, the tissues 

 continuing to produce heat, to reduce deoxidisable material 

 brought into contact with them, and the post-mortem 

 formation of enzymes generally ; also all cases of tissues 

 living without food, whether it be total deprivation 

 (starvation) or partial, as in the withdrawal of Oo, or H^O, 

 are examples of katabolic inertia. Of course, it is not only 

 in normal conditions that protoplasm exhibits its functional 

 inertia— the very expression of its inertia, when not in 

 harmony with the general well-being of the body, constitutes 

 the " disease." 



Thus the Adipose Diathesis is the almost ineradicable 

 and often inherited tendency of certain tissues to deposit 

 fat ; but this can be stated as accurately, thus — that fat- 

 deposition is the result of a particular chemical expression 

 of the functional inertia of certain forms of protoplasm, 

 this particular expression of the inertia being " morbid," 

 in that it is abnormally long-continued and altogether 

 excessive. Or, again, we have a pathological chemical 

 manifestation of functional inertia of certain tissues in 

 Diabetes mellitus. Tlieir inertia expresses itself chemically 

 in the excessive production of sugar — a tendency in many 

 cases (as also in fat-deposition) not amenable to drugs 

 (chemical stimuli), and morbid, in that it is a disregarding 

 of the metabolic needs of other tissues, for such a quantity 

 of circulating sugar is to them a poison. According to 

 Professor Adami, the property of inertia of protoplasm 

 is one of the essential conditions underlying the perverted 

 " habit of growth " of certain cells which is responsible i'or 

 many kinds of cancerous tumours. Professor Adami, both 



