l62 LIFE AND DEATH. 



chemical point of view this cellular juice is a mixture 

 of very different materials, albumens, globulins, carbo- 

 hydrates, and fats, elaborated by the cell itself. It is 

 a product of vital activity ; it is not yet the seat of 

 this activity. The living matter has taken refuge in 

 the spongy tissue itself, in the spongioplasm. 



According to other histologists, the comparison of 

 protoplasm to a spongy mass does not give the 

 most exact idea, and, in particular, it does not furnish 

 the most general idea. It would be far better to say 

 that the protoplasm possesses the structure of foam 

 or lather. As was seen by Kunstler in 1880, a com- 

 parison with some familiar objects gives the best idea. 

 Nothing could be more like protoplasm physically 

 than the culinary preparation known as sauce mayon- 

 naise^ made with the aid of oil and a liquid with 

 which oil does not mix. Emulsions of this kind were 

 made artificially by Butschli. He noted that these 

 preparations mimicked all the aspects of cellular 

 protoplasm. Thus, in the living cell there is a 

 mixture of two liquids, non-miscible and of unequal 

 fluidity. This mixture gives rise to the formation of 

 little cells. The more consistent substance forms 

 their supporting framework (Leydig's spongioplasm), 

 while the other, which is more fluid, fills its interior 

 (hyaloplasm). 



However that may be, whether the primitive 

 organization of the cellular protoplasm be that of a 

 sponge, as is asserted by Leydig, or that of a sauce 

 mayonnaise^ as is claimed by Butschli and Kunstler, 

 the complexity does not rest there. Further recourse 

 must be made to analysis. Just as the tissue of a 

 sponge, when torn, shows the fibres which constitute 

 it, so the spongioplasm, the parietal substance, is 



