2 3 



THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 



intermediate size between these and a mere granular 

 speck or dot about 40 ; 00 " in diameter. In an account 

 of this case published shortly afterwards 1 there occurs 

 the following passage : c The large nuclei were appar- 

 ently unconnected with fibres, and all intermediate 

 sizes could be traced between them and the small 

 dot-like forms. They existed in the greatest abund- 

 ance, and seemed to represent only different ages of 

 one and the same element. All alike became deeply 

 stained with carmine 2 .' I have since repeatedly seen 

 similar appearances in other specimens of diseased 

 nerve tissue. It is impossible to say positively, of 

 course, whether the minute dots, the mere formless 

 specks of living matter, had been given off bodily, as 

 buds, from pre-existing living matter, or whether they 

 had originated de now out of fluid plasma. The proba- 

 bilities are certainly, to say the least, as much in favour 

 of the one mode of origin as of the other j and even 

 if they had proceeded from previously living matter, 



1 ' Medico-Chirurgical Transactions,' 1867, vol. 1., 'On a Case of 

 Concussion - Lesion, with extensive Secondary Degenerations of the 

 Spinal Cord.' 



2 At the time I was somewhat puzzled to understand how the large 

 nucleated granulation corpuscles, which were also so numerous, could 

 have originated. Acknowledging the difficulty, it was then suggested 

 that the cells had become developed around some of the originally free 

 ' nuclei,' and had afterwards undergone a rapid process of fatty degene- 

 ration. Now, however, I feel much more inclined to believe that some 

 of the original 'nuclei' underwent a rapid process of growth, that each of 

 these subsequently developed a nucleus in its interior, and then underwent 

 a process of degeneration. (See loc. cit. PI. XL fig. 20.) 



