34 



PROTOPLASM. 



parts have already ceased to live, although they may per- 

 form important service of a passive kind, and be connected 

 with the matter that is actually alive. Even in the smallest 

 organisms which exhibit the simplest characters, as well as 

 in every texture of the most highly complex beings, we can 

 demonstrate two kinds of matter, differing in most remarkable 

 particulars from one another ; or perhaps it would be more 

 correct to say, matter in two different states, manifesting 

 different properties and exhibiting differences in appearance, 

 chemical composition, &c., and physical characters. This 

 distinction is essential and invariable, and although by calling 

 everything entering into the composition of a living being 

 by the same name, all differences of state, structure, and 

 composition may be ignored, these cannot be destroyed; 

 and every one who really desires to learn anything about 

 the structure, growth, and actions of living things will find 

 himself compelled to admit these differences, and will at once 

 proceed to investigate how they are to be accounted for. 



In my lectures at the Royal College of Physicians, in 

 the spring of 1860, I demonstrated in the tissues of plants, 

 animals, and man in health and disease, matter in the two 

 different states above referred to, and I showed that every 

 normal and abnormal cell or elemental unit of every tissue 

 capable of growth, or possessing formative power, invariably 

 consisted of matter in these two states or conditions : 

 i. Living, active, formative ; 2. Lifeless, passive, formed. 

 In my preparations these two different forms of matter are 

 at once distinguished, the first being artificially coloured 

 with carmine, while the matter in the last condition remains 

 untinged. 



