70 ANATOMICAL UNIT OE ELEMENTARY PART OR CELL. 



have been led to anticipate after studying the state- 

 ments in elementary treatises. Instead of cells with 

 cell walls, cell contents, and nuclei he will find what 

 I have already adverted to, simply two kinds of 

 matter one forming, the other formed, 



In 1859, I drew attention to the significance of ger- 

 minal matter or bioplasm, and showed that this consti- 

 tuted the organism of the amoeba and bodies of this 

 kind, that the white blood corpuscle, the pus corpuscle, 

 and all the so-called naked nuclei, were composed of 

 it, and that it was to be detected in every tissue at 

 every period of life. By changes in the germinal or 

 living matter, the cell wall, intercellular substance, 

 and every kind of tissue, everything peculiar to 

 living beings, results. I described how, in all struc- 

 tures, no matter how they differed from one another, 

 the germinal or living matter could be distinguished 

 with certainty from the formed material, and showed 

 that the living moving matter in the vegetable cell, 

 the matter of the amoeba, and that of the white blood 

 corpuscle, was represented in every cell or elementary 

 part of every tissue of man and animals, in health 

 and also in disease. 



1O5. The anatomical unit or elementary part or 

 Cell. The living matter, with the formed matter upon 

 its surface, whatever may be the structure, properties, 

 composition, and consistence of the latter, is the anato- 

 mical unit, the elementary part, or cell. This may form 

 the entire organism, in which case, it must be regarded 

 as a complete individual. Millions of such elementary 

 units or cells are combined to form every tissue and 

 organ of each individual man or animal. However 

 much organisms and tissues in their fully formed 

 state may vary as regards the character, properties, 

 and composition of the formed material, all were first 

 in the condition of clear, transparent, structureless, 

 formless living matter. Such matter exists in every 

 growing cell, and every cell capable of groivth, contains 



