Compendium of Histology. 



FIRST LECTURE. 



GENERAL : THE PROTOPLASMA, THE CELL, AND ITS 



DERIVATIVES. 



A DEEP abyss separates the inorganic from the organic, 

 the inanimate from the animate. The rock-crystal on the 

 one side — vegetable and animal on the other ; how infinitely 

 different the image ! 



Is it, then, many will inquire, possible to bridge over 

 this gulf? We answer, not at the present time. It is, perhaps, 

 reserved for future generations of men to fill up this yawning 

 chasm, by the aid of a more thorough knowledge of nature, 

 and to comprehend the sphere of the material world as a 

 unit. 



What, we ask further, is the primary beginning of the 

 organic ? 



An admirable English 

 naturalist, Huxley, suc- 

 ceeded, in the year 1868, 

 in making a marvelous dis- 

 covery. 



The bottom of our seas, 

 at the most considerable 

 depths, is covered over 

 large tracts with a strange 

 shiny substance. When 

 this thing, called the ba- 



thybius, is drawn up by the 



I 



Fig. 1. — Bathybius. 



