HIDDEN PROCESSES 157 



matter we see in the matrix or ground 

 substance of cartilage, the fibrous material 

 of osseous tissue, and the substance of 

 muscular fibre outside the nuclei. The ques- 

 tion arises are a, b and c all alive, or are the 

 phenomena of life to be limited to those 

 occurring in a, the protoplasm ? There can 

 be little doubt that life must be limited to the 

 protoplasm. We can scarcely imagine the 

 stored matter b or the inter-cellular matter c 

 to be alive. They do not manifest the general 

 phenomena of living matter, although they 

 may be and are highly complex materials. 

 This brings us then to consider what happens 

 in a. Undoubtedly there is evidence that 

 in it there are both anabolic and katabolic 

 processes, processes both of breaking down 

 and of repair, as shown by the appearance 

 in the lymph of chemical substances that 

 could not have been derived from b but 

 only from a. According to this view, only 

 matter taken up into a, assimilated by it, 

 becomes alive, but it is doubtful if even 

 here we can draw a dividing line between 

 what is living and what is dead. We forget 



