4 BIOLOGICAL PHYSICS 



of continuity, and the bonds of union, which exist in the 

 united realms of natural and "revealed" truth. 



In recognising the principle of circulation as all-per- 

 vading within the area of organism generally, but more 

 especially, for our purpose, within the human organism, 

 we think it well to begin our application of it by a 

 preliminary physical division of that organism into its 

 two constituent parts of solid and fluid, or into that part 

 which undergoes organisation, and into that other which, 

 when the first has become organised and vascularised, 

 circulates through it, becoming subservient to the great 

 functions of conveying into, and out of it, the materials 

 for its nutrition, and those which have been used up and 

 become effete, respectively, under the titles of protoplasm 

 and lymph. 



Protoplasm and lymph may be said to represent the 

 two essential and ultimate physical elements or principles 

 through, and by which, life takes into itself organic form 

 and individuality, in accordance with the laws of heredity, 

 and the axiom : omne vivum ex vivo, in contradistinction 

 to the doctrine of abiogenesis. They constitute, alike, 

 the unicell, the multicell, and the most histologically 

 differentiated organisms, requiring but the endowment of 

 transmitted vital energy, without which their continued 

 existence as organic basic units is impossible. Physico- 

 chemically they may be imitated, but developmentally or 

 physiologically they can scarcely be said to evince more 

 than physical change, the great desideratum of life being 

 wanted to initiate and continue the process of biogenesis, 

 and the development of definite organic forms capable of 

 persistence. 



The two essential physiological elements of living, or 

 vital, organisation, protoplasm and lymph, although abso- 

 lutely distinct physical entities, cannot live apart from 

 each other ; hence, in every living body they are indis- 

 solubly joined biological elements, and the protoplasm 

 affording stability to the lymph, and the lymph circulating 

 throughout the protoplasm on terms of such intimacy that 

 the result is a living organism. One universal circulation 

 of the lymph in its various forms prevails throughout the 

 protoplasmically composed organism marked by systemic 



