34 THE SCIENCE OF LIFE. 



it may have acquired special properties, as the elasticity 

 of muscle, or the conducting power of nerve tissue. 



If the change referred to occurs suddenly, that is, if 

 the life of bioplasm is suddenly destroyed, the result is 

 water, albumen, fat, and sometimes fibrin, and certain 

 salts, as chloride of sodium, etc. 



In slower transformations, which are equivalent to 

 slow molecular death, different materials result, as fat, 

 sugar, milk, biliary acids, etc. Free oxygen is some- 

 times absorbed, and very complex compounds result, 

 often baffling analysis. 



Physiological Chemistry has traced many of the re- 

 sults of changes in formed material, but the composition 

 and physical surroundings of germinal or living matter 

 will not indicate the nature of its transformations nor its 

 function. No one can tell whether a particular bioplast 

 belongs to a vegetable or an animal, whether it will form 

 ar eye or a finger, a nerve or a piece of bone, nor whether 

 its function shall be secretive, excretive, elastic, or con- 

 ductive. Nothing but observation can tell its future life- 

 history. 



9. Although all bioplasm has powers or endowments 

 which transcend all physics and chemistry, and which 

 can only be accounted for by that dualistic philosophy 

 which acknowledges the reality of both matter and 

 spirit, yet " all flesh is not the same flesh." There is an 

 original and essential distinction between bioplasts. 

 The bioplasm of a fungus never produces a fish, nor that 

 of a butterfly a man. This will be fully discussed in the 

 chapter on Parentage. Yet it is no easy task to dis- 

 criminate between living forms, especially in what are 



