LIVING MATTER AND FORMED MATTER. 



217 



matter of the fully formed cell of a living being, and, in 

 describing the formation of tissues and the morbid changes 

 affecting them, I found it necessary, in order to make what 

 I had to say intelligible, to give to the living matter and the 

 formed matter, distinct names by which these might be 

 known and distinguished from other things. I desired that 

 the two states in which the matter of the cell existed should 

 be clearly indicated and carefully distinguished, differing as 

 they did from every other known state of matter. In this 

 way only, as it appeared to me, could a clear account of 

 the functions or offices, discharged respectively by the two 

 kinds of matter of which every fully formed cell consists, 

 be given. It seems, nevertheless, desirable, and for many 

 reasons, that the short convenient word " cell " should not 

 be discarded, and I hope, therefore, that the meaning of this 

 word will, before long, be so modified by common consent, 

 as no longer to conflict with well-ascertained facts, and that 

 the old arbitrary definitions which are still insisted upon by 

 some teachers, will be abandoned. 



The living matter, then, with the formed matter upon its 

 surface, whatever may be the structure, properties, and con- 

 sistence of the latter, is the anatomical unit, the elementary 

 part or cell, but it must not be supposed that these two are 

 absolutely necessary to life. A speck of bioplasm without 

 any formed material is, so to say, the vital element. 



The entire organism may consist of one anatomical 

 unit, in which case, it must be regarded as a complete 

 individual. Millions of complex elementary parts or 

 " cells " are combined to form every tissue and organ of 

 man and the higher animals. But every one of these was 

 preceded by simple structureless bioplasm only. However 



