MAUDSLEY ON HEREDITARY DESCENT. 47 



11. As the co-ordinating power which is the cause 

 of form in organisms cannot be found in matter, it 

 must be looked for outside of matter. Like any- 

 other cause, its nature must be judged of from its 

 effects. 



Any man who has stood face to face with the re- 

 sults of microscopical research in the last twenty 

 years will, I think, be very slow to adopt any other 

 than Aristotle's definition of life. Perfectly parallel 

 with that definition is the one given here. 



12. Life is the immaterial co-ordinating power be- 

 hind the movements of germinal matter. 



That definition having been defended by me at 

 great length previously, I shall now use our former 

 conclusions. From the point of view reached in thir- 

 teen lectures on Biology (see vol. i. of the Boston 

 Monday Lectures), I must begin and I can only 

 begin to-day a reply to Maudsley. 



1. Germinal matter, or bioplasm, increases in quan- 

 tity as living tissues grow. Once every living thing 

 was but a single naked mass of bioplasm. 



2. With the increase of quantity there is an in- 

 crease of the force in the germinal matter. 



Your naked, throbbing mass of bioplasm takes on 

 a wall, and divides and subdivides, and weaves the 

 walls of its cells into tendon and nerve and muscle, 

 and coils these around each other, according to a 

 predetermined plan. One-fifth of the bulk of the 

 mature organism is made up of germinal matter. 

 One bioplast develops into many. 



3. This increase is derived from the assimilation 

 of inorganic matter. 



