30 PROTOPLASM. 



utricle itself; to this and the substances which it encloses; 

 and to all these things, together with the cellulose wall ; to 

 the matter composing the sarcode of the foraminifera ; to 

 that which constitutes the amoeba, white blood-corpuscle, 

 and other naked masses of germinal matter ; to the matter 

 between the so-called nucleus and muscular tissue, and to 

 the contractile matter itself; to everything which exhibits 

 contractility ; to nerve-fibres, and to other structures pos- 

 sessing remarkable endowments ; to the soft matter within 

 an elementary part, as a cell of epithelium ; to the 

 hard external part of such a cell; to the entire epithelial 

 cell. 



Inanimate albuminous matter has been regarded as 

 protoplasm. Living things have been spoken of as masses 

 of protoplasm ; the same things dead have been said to be 

 protoplasm. If the matter be boiled or roasted, it is still 

 protoplasm ; and there seems no reason why it should not 

 be dissolved, and yet retain its name protoplasm. 



It is therefore very difficult to see whit advantage is to 

 be gained by the use of the word " protoplasm." If we call 

 a cell a protoplasm, and an egg a protoplasm, and a sheep a 

 protoplasm, and a man a protoplasm, we do not therefore 

 get a clearer idea of any one of them than we had before, 

 while on the other hand the words cell, egg, sheep, man, are 

 distinctive, short, and generally understood. There would 

 be terrible risk of very different living things being con- 

 founded, if they were all called " protoplasms." 



Notwithstanding the clever and subtle arguments which 

 have been advanced in its favour, and repeated over and 

 over again in almost every possible form, the new doctrine 



