FUNCTIONAL INERTIA 



CHAPTER I 



GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS ON THE PROPERTIES 



OF PROTOPLASM 

 I/ 

 LIVING matter or bioplasm is known to be living in 



virtue of its possession of a property whereby, if the 

 living matter receives a stimulus, it will respond in 

 some way or other to that stimulus this property 

 is called affectability (irritability or excitability) : 

 in German Erregbarkett is the corresponding term. 



Affectability can, then, be defined as the power, 

 tendency, capacity, or disposition to be affected by 

 a stimulus, i.e., to exhibit response. The response 

 is usually two-fold (a) one or more of the trans- 

 formations of energy, and (b) some re-arrangement 

 of molecules in space. 



This property under the name of "Irritability" 

 (Irritabilitas] was first attributed to living matter, 

 to muscle, by the anatomist, Dr. Francis Glisson, 

 of the University of Cambridge in 1677. 



Now life or livingness cannot be adequately 

 described in terms of affectability alone, the pos- 

 session of no other property than this would allow 

 for continuous response, unending activity an 



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