4 T o WHA T HA PPENS IN NUTRITION ? 



simply by diminishing to some extent the restric- 

 tions under which life is ordinarily carried on,* and 

 thus pabulum is permitted to come more readily 

 and more quickly into contact with matter that 

 already lives. 



What happens in Nutrition. The food that is 

 absorbed in an altered state by the blood does not 

 transmit life to the tissues ; for as I have shown every 

 tissue contains in its substance matter in a state of 

 active vitality or bioplasm. The pabulum that passes 

 from the vessels and permeates the lifeless tissue is 

 inanimate. It comes into contact with the living 

 matter ; and certain of its constituents then acquire 

 at once vital properties, powers or endowments. By 

 contact with and absorption into the living, life is 

 communicated to that which was lifeless. There is no 

 reason to suppose that living matter (for instance, the 

 so-called " nucleus " of a cell) exerts any influence 

 upon matter at a distance from it ; but it appears 

 probable that in all cases the changes which occur in 

 nutrition are simply these : 



The inanimate pabulum permeates the inanimate 

 tissue (cell-wall, intercellular substance), and comes 

 into contact with the living or germinal matter or 

 bioplasm. Certain of the inanimate constituents of the 



* This view concerning stimuli, excitants, and irritants, is discussed 

 in a short paper published in the Lancet for December 6th, 1862, and 

 was a year or two afterwards more fully considered in papers published 

 in the Medical Times. 



