NERVE-TISSUE. 307 



Tireless ; while all the rest of the infinite variety of structure and composition, 

 solid and fluid, which make up living beings, is merely passive and lifeless 

 formed material. This distinction into only two radically different kinds of 

 matter viz. : the living or germinal matter and the formed material gives 

 the clue whereby he clears up the confusion into which the cell-doctrine had 

 fallen, and gives the point of departure for the theory of innate independent 

 life of each part, which the cell-theory had aimed at but failed to make good. 

 The one true and only living matter called by Beale germinal matter, or 

 bioplasm is described as " always transparent and colorless, and, as far as 

 can be ascertained by examination with the highest powers, perfectly struct- 

 ureless, and it exhibits those same characters at every period of its existence." 

 . . . The living matter of Beale corresponds to the following histological 

 elements of other authors : The viscid nitrogenous substance within the pri- 

 mordial utricle, called by Von Mohl protoplasm ; the primordial utricle itself, in 

 Naegeli's sense of that term viz. : the layer of protoplasm next the cell-wall ; 

 the transparent semi-fluid matter occupying the spaces and intervals between 

 the threads and walls of those spaces formed by the so-called vacuolation of 

 protoplasmic masses ; the greater part of the sarcode of the monera, rhizo- 

 poda, and other low organisms ; the white blood-corpuscles, pus-corpuscles, 

 and other naked wandering masses of living matter ; the so-called nucleus of 

 the secreting cells, and of the tissues of the higher animals, and many plant- 

 cells ; the nuclei of the cells of the gray matter of the brain, spinal marrow, 

 and ganglions, and the nuclei of nerve-fibers. The term of true living or germ- 

 inal matter can never be given to the following parts, although to some of 

 them the word protoplasm has been erroneously applied viz. : the cell-wall 

 of plants or animals, however delicate or gelatinous ; the threads or filaments 

 and walls of the vacuoles within protoplasmic masses or cells ; the wall of the 

 primordial utricle ; the true fibrous, connective, elastic, bony, or other tissues 

 generally included among the living parts of animals ; even the proper con- 

 tractile fiber of the muscles, the radiating fibers of the caudate nerve-cells, 

 and the outer coat of those cells, besides the nerve-fibers in general ; the hard 

 parts of epithelial cells, and all liquid secretions ; the cilia ; the tissue of 

 cuticle, hair, nails, horn, and all analogous parts in plants ; the granules in 

 sarcode ; all coloring matter ; and, lastly, all pabulum, including the fluid 

 part of blood, lymph, and chyle, and corresponding matters in plants. In 

 short, the name of bioplasm, given by Beale, or protoplasm (in a restricted 

 sense, as it will probably be ultimately accepted by biologists), as indicating 

 the ideal living matter, cannot be given to any substance displaying rigidity 

 in any degree, from the softest gelatinous membrane up to the hardest teeth- 

 enamel ; nor to anything exhibiting a trace of structure to the finest micro- 

 scope ; nor to any liquid ; nor to any substance capable of true solution. 

 Thus, " nothing that lives is alive in every part," but as long as any individ- 

 ual part or tissue is properly called living, it is only so in virtue of particles of 

 the above-described protoplasm freely distributed among or interwoven with 

 the textures so closely that there is scarcely any part one five-hundredth of an 

 inch in size but contains its portion of protoplasm. Thus we see realized the 

 hypothesis of Fletcher that all living action is performed solely by virtue of 

 portions of irritable or living matter interwoven with the otherwise dead text- 

 ures. According to Beale, " of the matter which constitutes the bodies of 

 men and animals in the fully formed condition, probably more than four-fifths 

 are in the formed and non-living state. All this was, however, living at an 



