NUTRITION OF A LIVING CELL. 57 



as regards the germinal matter by ignoring its existence, and 

 attribute to a "molecular machinery" which the mind cannot 

 conceive, and which cannot be rendered evident to the 

 senses, all those wonderful phenomena which are really due 

 to vital power. Moreover, resemblances to living organisms 

 of the most fanciful kind are adduced apparently for the 

 purpose of leading people to believe that non-living matter 

 behaves like that which is alive.* 



On the Nutrition of a Living Cell. In nutrition, the 

 active changes are exclusively confined to the germinal 

 matter. The formed material is passive, and probably acts 

 like a filter, permitting some things to pass and interfering 

 with the passage of others. In nutrition, pabulum becomes 

 germinal matter to compensate for the germinal matter 

 which has been converted into formed material. Now let 

 us consider the order of these changes, and endeavour to 

 express them in the simplest possible manner. 



Let the germinal matter which came from pre-existing 

 germinal matter be called a; the non-living pabulum, some 



* Professor Tyndall describes (" Proceedings of the Royal Society," 

 vol. xvii, No. 105) the changes resulting from the influence of light on 

 the vapour of an aqueous solution of hydriodic acid. His rhapsodical 

 description, which extends over an entire page, contains the following 

 curious allusions and comparisons : A cloud was developed like an 

 organism from a formless mass to a marvellously complex structure ; 

 spectral cones with filmy drapery; exquisite vases with the faintest 

 clouds, like spectral sheets of liquid, falling over their edges ; clouds 

 like roses, tulips, sunflowers, and bottles one within the other ; a cloud 

 like a fish, with eyes, gills, and feelers, and like a jelly fish, with the 

 internal economy of a highly complex organism, exhibiting the twoness 

 of the animal form ; as perfect as if it had been turned in a lathe ; and 

 likely to prove exceedingly valuable to pattern designers ! 



