48 HEREDITY. 



The individual cell takes in nutrient matter from 

 without, transforms it into living matter, and throws 

 it off as formed matter. You remember that there 

 are but three kinds of matter in living tissues, — 

 nutrient' matter, living matter, and formed matter. 

 The inorganic is changed into the germinal ; the ger- 

 minal throws off the formed ; and, as your bioplast 

 divides and subdivides, no doubt the matter which 

 it weaves into these various structures is derived 

 from the inorganic world. 



4. Maudsley asks how we know that the movements 

 of germinal matter, which are sustained by inorganic 

 matter, did not originate in inorganic matter. 



He says, " Admitting that vital transforming mat- 

 ter is at first derived from vital structure, it is evident 

 that the external force and matter transformed does, 

 in turn, become transforming force — that is, vital. 

 And, if that takes place after the vital process has once 

 commenced, is it, it may be asked, extravagant to sup- 

 pose that a similar transformation might at some period 

 have commenced the process, and may ever be doing so ? 

 The fact that in growth and development, life is con- 

 tinually increasing from a transformation of physical 

 and chemical forces is, after all, in favor of the pre- 

 sumption that it may at first have so originated. 

 And the advocate of this view may turn upon his 

 opponent, and demand of him how he, with a due 

 regard to the axiom that force is not self-generatory, 

 and to the fact that living matter does increase from 

 the size of a little cell to the magnitude of a human 

 body, accounts for the continual production of trans- 



