HUXLETS PROTOPLASM. 



polype," are composed of " masses of protoplasm with a 

 nucleus," unless it be that still more extravagant assertion 

 that what is ordinarily termed a cell or elementary part is 

 a mass of protoplasm ; for can anything be more unlike 

 the semi-fluid, active, moving matter of amoeba protoplasm, 

 than the hard, dry, passive, external part of a cuticular cell 

 or of an elementary part of bone ? 



I cannot forbear quoting in this place the following 

 passage, which certainly requires explanation. After stating 

 that the substance of a colourless blood-corpuscle is an 

 active mass of protoplasm, Mr. Huxley remarks that " iinder 

 sundry circumstances the corpuscle dies (!) and becomes 

 distended into a round mass, in the midst of which is seen 

 a smaller spherical body, which existed, but was more or 

 less hidden in the living corpuscle, and is called its nucleus. 

 Corpuscles of essentially similar structure are to be found 

 in the skin, in the lining of the mouth, and scattered through 

 the whole framework of the body" Now, what can be 

 meant by a white blood-corpuscle dying and becoming dis- 

 tended into a round mass under sundry circumstances? 

 Mr. Huxley goes on to say that at an early period of deve- 

 lopment the organism is " nothing but an aggregation of 

 such corpuscles," that is, of corpuscles (elementary parts 

 or cells) like those " found in the skin, in the lining of 

 the mouth, and scattered through the whole framework of 

 the body." This assertion is incorrect, inasmuch as the 

 corpuscles in the embryo consist almost entirely of (living) 

 matter like the white blood-corpuscle, while those of which 

 the skin (cuticle) and most of the tissues of the adult are 

 composed consist principally of formed matter with a very 



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