LIVING AND FORMED MATTER. 



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entirely of (living) matter like the white blood-corpuscle, 

 and those of which the skin (cuticle) and most of the 

 tissues of the adult are composed consist principally of 

 formed matter with a very little of the other (living) matter, 

 and the oldest particles of cuticle are entirely composed 

 of hard formed matter. Here, as in other cases referred to 

 by Huxley, no distinction has been drawn between that 

 which is living, growing, and forming; and that which has 

 been formed and is destitute of all pouters of life and growth. 

 No distinction between living matter and lifeless matter ! 

 Both are confused together under the term " protoplasm," 

 for which might be substituted " organic matter" or "albu- 

 minous matter." Huxley terms the particles of epithelium 

 of the cuticle and of mucous membranes, masses of proto- 

 plasm. He says beasts and fowls, reptiles and fishes, are 

 all composed of structural units of the same character. 



Now, this mass of protoplasm, this unit, consists partly 

 of lifeless and partly of living matter. The outer part, 

 which may be dry and hard, and is lifeless, may be under- 

 going disintegration, and is perhaps being taken up by other 

 living organisms, but is nevertheless, according to this view, 

 just as much protoplasm as the living, growing, moving 

 matter itself. It does not signify how many different things 

 may be comprised in the cell or elementary part, in what 

 essentially different states these things may be, how different 

 parts may differ in properties they constitute protoplasm. 

 If a white blood-corpuscle, a piece of muscle, white of egg, 

 and roast mutton are all to be called protoplasm, surely the 

 name may be also employed in speaking of hair, horn, nail, 

 bone, wood, coral, and shell, and a number of other things ; 

 indeed, we might call men, animals, and plants, dead or 



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