CHAPTER VII. 



ELEMENTARY STRUCTURE OF LIVING BODIES. 

 PROTOPLASM OR BIOPLASM. 



As has been before mentioned, the presence of an albu- 

 minoid substance, or " physical basis," appears to be abso- 

 lutely essential to the manifestation of vital action ; but it is 

 by no means absolutely necessary that this substance should 

 be so "differentiated" as to exhibit anything that would 

 properly be called structure. All the phenomena of life seem 

 capable of manifesting themselves through the medium of 

 albuminoid matter, in which, at most, very minute particles 

 or molecules are developed. This albuminoid matter is the 

 " protoplasm " of Professor Huxley and other writers ; but 

 it is better designated by the name of " bioplasm," applied 

 to it by Dr Beale. In the case, then, of some of the lower 

 forms of animal life, such as the Foraminifera (fig. i), or the 

 still more degraded Monera of Haeckel, the organism con- 

 sists wholly of bioplasmic matter, which may fairly be called 

 " structureless," since it exhibits nothing in the way of 

 definite organs, and has, at most, a number of small par- 

 ticles or molecules scattered through it. Nevertheless, the 

 animal performs all the functions of nutrition and reproduc- 

 tion, and exhibits all the essential phenomena of life. 



Protoplasmic matter, or " bioplasm," constitutes the basis 

 of the ovum of both animals and plants ; but there are none 



