CELL THEORIES. 131 



cesses of cells is not by outgrowth of processes, 

 but by the separation of corpuscles which gradu- 

 ally part, is most important ; though there is grave 

 reason to pause before denying with him that con- 

 tinuity of structure is ever the result of separate 

 elements sending out processes which unite. 



But, however much it may be desired to give Dr. 

 Beale full credit for the advances which he has 

 made, it is easy enough to understand why that 

 credit should be sometimes withheld, when one 

 considers how these advances have been mixed up 

 with a theory of " germinal and formed matter " 

 which has made but little way. It is quite im- 

 possible to support the doctrine that all " formed 

 matter " was once " germinal," particularly if such 

 things as the matrix of cartilage and the fibres 

 of tendon are to be included under the term, as 

 they are by Dr. Beale. Certain cell-walls, as those 

 of at least some of the fat-cells, are really altered 

 protoplasm ; but there is not the slightest reason 

 to believe that the matrix of cartilage or the fibres 

 of tendon are transformed portions of the vital 

 corpuscles, or that they are undeserving of the 

 name of " intercellular " substance. Rather would 

 it have been well if Dr. Beale had looked on the 

 cell-wall itself as intercellular. 



His difficulty appears to be that " no well- 



