STR UCTURELESS LIVING MA TTER. 277 



minute living spherules of which there is reason to believe we 

 can only see some that are of comparatively large size, and 

 probably many series removed from their ultimate spherical 

 components. 



Let us in imagination peer into the ultimate particles of 

 the living, active, moving matter, and consider what we 

 should probably discern. Were it possible to see things so 

 very small, I think we should discover spherules of extreme 

 minuteness, each being composed of still smaller spherules, 

 and these of spherules infinitely minute. Such spherules 

 would have upon their surface a small quantity of matter 

 differing in properties from that in the interior, but so soft 

 and diffluent that the particles might come into very close 

 proximity. In each little spherule the matter would be in 

 active movement, and new minute spherules would be spring- 

 ing into being in its central part. Those spherules already 

 formed would be making their way outwards so as to give 

 place to new ones, which continually arise in the centre of 

 every one of the animated particles. The rate of growth of 

 the entire mass would vary with the rate at which the new 

 particles were evolved from its centre. 



I have endeavoured to give a notion of the arrangement 

 of the minute particles of living matter, according to the idea 

 I have formed, in the figures in PI. XVI. The illustrations 

 must be regarded as of the roughest character, but it is not 

 possible for me to represent the particles as I conceive they 

 would appear if I were able to see them. In fig. 8 I have 

 given a drawing of an excessively minute particle with new 

 centres originating within it. 



There is good reason to think that movement is con- 

 stantly taking place in the most minute living particles in a 



