276 ULTIMATE PARTICLES OF 



form, structure, and function of the tissues and organs of 

 all living things are determined. It may by its vital move- 

 ments transport itself long distances, and extend itself so as 

 to get through pores, holes, and canals too minute to be 

 seen even with the aid of very high powers. There are 

 creatures of exquisite tenuity which are capable of climbing 

 through fluids and probably through the air itself creatures 

 which climb without muscles, nerves or limbs creatures 

 with no mechanism, having no structure, capable when 

 suspended in the medium in which they live, of extend- 

 ing any one part of the pulpy matter of which they consist 

 beyond another part, and of causing the rest to follow ; as if 

 each part willed to move and did so, or moved in immediate 

 response to mandates operating upon it from a distance, 

 governed by some undiscovered, and at present unimagined 

 laws, creatures which multiply by separating into two or 

 more parts without loss of substance, or capacity, or power. 

 It would seem that each part possessed equal powers with 

 the whole, for the smallest fragment detached may soon grow 

 into a body like the original mass in every respect ; and the 

 process seems to be capable of repetition without any loss 

 or diminution in capacity or power. It may be asked if 

 there is anything approaching this occurs within the range of 

 physics or chemistry. 



Of the ultimate Particles of Living Matter. It seems to 

 me probable that the wonderful changes taking place when 

 inanimate matter becomes living, which occur in living beings 

 alone, proceed only in the central part of the spherical par- 

 ticles of bioplasm. Discussions as to the nature of the vital 

 forces must, I think, therefore be limited to the considera- 

 tion of the particular changes which take place in those 



