94 



BIOPLASM. 



grow, and live, and multiply, and form a great mass 

 of matter, which however will never produce a brain 

 or an organ capable of performing the functions 

 which the brain was designed to discharge. They 

 may multiply fast, and take up more nourishment 

 than the brain cells would have appropriated, had they 

 been formed, but the organ with its marvellously 

 complex intricate structure, which for its formation 

 requires gradually progressive changes, steadily pro- 

 ceeding during a length of time, will never be pro- 

 duced ; and under no circumstances conceivable could 

 any of these masses, or any of their descendants, 

 develop one perfect brain cell. If progress towards 

 the mature state be stopped at any point the perfect 

 state of development can never be reached, and the 

 organism if developed must be imperfect. The de- 

 velopment of other complex organs may have pro- 

 ceeded with perfect regularity, but the organism must 

 ever remain incomplete in structure, and incapable 

 of performing all the functions it might have dis- 

 charged. 



But although developmental power may be lost 

 for ever, power of a different kind may be acquired 

 part passu during the rapid multiplication of bioplasm. 

 Progressive advance in the capacity to form lasting 

 structures and elaborate organs is characterised by 

 the comparatively slow but regular and orderly 

 growth and multiplication of bioplasm. Rapid mul- 

 tiplication, on the other hand, involves degradation 



