LIVING MATTEE IN "PROTOPLASM." 33 



Only a Part of Protoplasm is Living Matter. The main- stress 

 is to be laid on my assertion that not the whole mass hitherto 

 termed protoplasm is endowed with properties of life, but only 

 a part of it the living matter proper. As I shall later on 

 demonstrate, the living matter appears first in the shape of a 

 solid, homogeneous, apparently structureless granule, which by 

 growing, by taking in liquid, and by splitting into a reticulum, 

 becomes what has been termed protoplasm. Protoplasm, there- 

 fore, is only one stage in the development of living matter, and by 

 no means its exclusive appearance under the microscope. 



The two main properties of living matter, motion and 

 growth, are possessed by every, even the smallest, lump of living 

 matter. The motion is relatively little marked in a solid lump, 

 and becomes the more evident the more the living lump has split 

 up into a reticulum, the more it has assumed the appearance of 

 " protoplasm." Growth, on the contrary, is a marked property 

 of every granule of living matter; on the increase of its size 

 depends generation, formation of complicated organs and organ- 

 isms, and new formation, so striking in inflammation and in 

 tumors. All varieties of generation (see page 16) are due to 

 a motion and growth of the living matter, while the protoplasmic 

 liquid, probably nitrogenous top, a substance of secondary for- 

 mation, is a carrier of nutritive and used-up material of the living 

 matter. The formation of basis and cement substance, and the 

 process of secretion, furnish direct proofs of the significance of 

 the protoplasmic liquid. 



(fhemical Re-agents. Very little is known as to chemical tests 

 of living matter. Carmine solutions, as a rule, stain it, and 

 this explains why the nucleus, which holds a good deal more 

 living matter than the rest of protoplasm, is more deeply stained; 

 the action of hsematoxylon (in alcohol specimens) is similar; 

 chloride of gold renders living matter violet; but neither are 

 absolutely reliable. Acids destroy living matter ; consequently 

 also acetic acid. The former method of bringing to view the 

 nucleus by treatment with acetic acid simply destroyed the rest, 

 due to the fact that the bulky formations of the nucleus resist 

 the action of acetic acid more than the scattered formations in 

 the protoplasm. This re-agent has scarcely any value. The dif- 

 ferent stainings of tissues by re-agents, especially combinations 

 of indigo, picric acid, and aniline colors, are caused by a differ- 

 ence of the chemical products of living matter, rather than by a 

 difference of the living matter itself. 

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