ACTION OF THE BIOPLASM OF CAPILLARY VESSELS. 289 



the fissures close up, and the circulation is restored, 

 and may be again carried on as if no escape of blood 

 had occurred. 



298. Of the action of the bioplasm of capillary 

 vessels during life. — I have already drawn the reader's 

 attention to the fact that in nutrition, bioplasm, 

 or living matter, is the material which is invariably 

 concerned in taking iip and appropriating the lifeless 

 nutrient pabulum, § 39. The latter, a product of 

 death, is in fact altered in composition and prepared 

 for subsequent appropriation by bioplasm. Indeed 

 "food " consists of materials, having a peculiar com- 

 position which have been formed by special kinds of 

 living matter. But even those constituents which so 

 closely agree in chemical properties and composition 

 with the substances of which the tissues of our bodies 

 are made, that the chemist believes them to be 

 identical, cannot be applied directly in construction. A 

 solution of muscular tissue, for example, cannot be 

 at once conveyed to the muscles and then converted 

 into the muscle of our bodies. The elements of every 

 particle must be re-an-anged befoi-e it can be appro- 

 priated and taken up by the Kving matter of the 

 muscular tissue. Nay, there is reason to think that 

 substances closely resembling, or even identical with 

 the tissues that are to be found, are as much changed 

 as those materials of our food which are very far 

 removed chemically fi'om the tissues. In all cases 

 the analytical and synthetical changes occurrino- in 

 the body are effected by the bioplasm or livinp- matter, 

 and in these operations the bioplasm of the capillaries 

 performs a very prominent part, § 296. 



The bioplasts are exceedingly numerous, but vary 

 in number in different capillaries. Immense num- 

 bers are found in connection with the small veins, the 

 parietes of which indeed exhibit a structure very- 

 similar to that of the capillary. See Plate XV, fig. 2. 

 I do not think that the appearance, copied in my 



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