132 CELL THEORIES. 



ascertained facts have yet been adduced in favour 

 of the view that any living structure whatever can 

 influence matter at a distance from it, so as to alter 

 its properties or composition, or in support of the 

 notion that cell-wall, cell-contents, or intercellular 

 substance possess any metabolic power whatever." 

 And the way he gets over this difficulty in the case 

 of hepatic cells is most ingenious, namely, by re- 

 presenting that the outer part of each corpuscle is 

 no longer vital, but converted into formed material 

 of a soft description, becoming changed into bili- 

 ary constituents, albuminoid and amyloid matters. 

 Other researches, however, come to our rescue here. 

 There is nothing more certain than the power 

 which Chrzonszczewsky showed hepatic corpuscles 

 to possess of taking up sulpho-indigotate of soda 

 from the blood and passing it on into the gall-ducts. 

 Here, then, is an indubitable instance of a living 

 structure influencing matter external to it. And 

 where, after all, is the unaccustomed marvel in this, 

 when it is recollected that all the attractions of dead 

 matter are exercised by molecules or masses, as the 

 case may be, on others external to themselves, and 

 that in the case of gravitation there is no limit to 

 the distance which may be between the masses 

 provided that they are sufficiently large ? 



Looking at things from my point of view, I am 



