60 PROTOPLASM. 



material around each mass. There is no structure through 

 which these soft living particles, or small portions of living 

 matter detached from them, may not make their way. The 

 destruction of tissue may be very quickly effected by the 

 growth and multiplication of such masses of germinal 

 matter. Many of the changes in disease result from the 

 undue growth of this substance, and indeed there is no 

 operation peculiar to living beings in which germinal or 

 living matter does not take part. Any sketch of the struc- 

 ture of the cell would be incomplete without an account of 

 some of the essential alterations which occur in it in disease. 

 I propose, therefore, to refer very briefly to the general 

 nature of some of the most important morbid changes. 



Within certain limits, the conditions under which cells 

 ordinarily live may be modified without any departure from 

 the healthy state, but if the conditions be very considerably 

 changed, disease may result, or the cell may die. For 

 instance, if cells, which in their normal state grow slowly, 

 be supplied with an excess of nutrient pabulum, and increase 

 in number very quickly, a morbid state is engendered. Or 

 if, on the other hand, the rate at which multiplication takes 

 place be reduced in consequence of an insufficient supply 

 of nourishment, or from other causes, a diseased state may 

 result. So that, in the great majority of cases, disease or 

 the morbid state essentially differs from health or the healthy 

 state in an increased or reduced rate of growth and multi- 

 plication of the germinal matter of one or more particular 

 tissues or organs. In the process of inflammation, in the 

 formation of inflammatory products, as lymph and pus, in the 

 production of tubercle and cancer, we see the results of in- 



