LIFE IN ITS LOWER AND HIGHER FORMS 33 



to fall back on that worn-out deus ex machina, 

 protoplasm/ we must use analysis of function as the 

 guide to the ultra-microscopical analysis of structure. 

 The first line of discovery for biology has been opened 

 by observation of the activity of living cells. 



Life is first propagated by division of the cell, ori 

 ginating a second cell. Beale s observations 1 are thus 

 briefly described by Sir W. Turner : The elementary 

 tissues of every living thing consists of matter in two 

 states, the one an active, living, growing substance, 

 composed of spherical particles, capable of multiplying 

 itself. The other is situated peripherally to the 

 germinal matter from which it is produced; it is 

 passive, non-living, or dead, incapable of multiplying 

 itself. 2 The former, Bealo names bioplasm ; the 

 latter, formed material. Beale states that in some 

 cases the germinal matter corresponds to the nu 

 cleus, in others to the nucleus and cell contents, so 

 that the wall or membrane enclosing the cell is the 

 only non- germinal portion. It was discovered by 

 Strasburger and Flemming, that the nucleus in its 

 passive or resting stage, consists, in addition to the 

 nucleus, of threads or fibres, some finer, others coarser, 

 formed of nuclein, and arranged in a reticular net-work, 

 so as to form little knots at the points of intersection 

 of the fibres. 3 The nuclear fibres play an important 

 part in the process of cell multiplication. During the 

 movement which results in the formation of new cells, 

 the fibres arrange themselves in loops, and form a 

 spindle-like figure. Each loop-fibre splits up into two 

 threads. These threads separate and pass to opposite 



1 Beale s Structure of the Simple Tissues, 1861 ; Bioplasm, 1872. 



2 The Cell Theory, pp. 26, 27. 3 Ibid., p. 28. 



