138 IMPORTANCE OF BIOPLASM IN EFFECTING CHANGES. 



dimnrshes in amount in consequence of its conversion 

 into bioplasm. On the distal side of the vesicle, 

 phenomena of another kind are proceeding. The 

 biop^sm is there undergoing change, and becoming 

 resolved into substances, which are immediately taken 

 up by the bioplasm- of the blood and blood-vessels. 

 As has been already described 25 to 32, all nutri- 

 tive operations are conducted through the interven- 

 tion of bioplasm alone. 



195. Importance of bioplasm in effecting changes. 

 As fatty matter is formed from bioplasm, so its 

 removal is effected only through the instrumentality 

 of this living matter. It cannot be removed until it 

 has been again taken upland converted into bioplasm. 

 Moreover, the same bioplasm is instrumental in bo:h 

 operations. In the one case taking certain con- 

 stituents from the blood, increasing at their expense, 

 and then undergoing conversion into fatty and other 

 matters. In the other, growing at the expense of 

 this fatty matter already produced, and becoming 

 resolved into substances which find their way back 

 again into the blood, and which are at length appro- 

 priated in part by other forms of bioplasm of the 

 body. This view has been recently confirmed by 

 Czajewicz, in some observations upon the adipose 

 tissue of rabbits. (Reichert and Du Bois Reymond's 

 Archiv., 1866, p. 289.) In animals which have 

 become rapidly emaciate!, the fat cells of the adipose 

 tissue are seen to be shrunken, and, instead of con- 

 taining fatty matter, fluid, with some grannies and 

 one or two oil globules, are alone found. This in- 

 teresting fact was first observed by Kolliker. The 

 amount of fat in an individual vesicle may vary from 

 time to time ; the processes of formation, and the 

 disintegration of the fat which has been already 

 formed, alternating with one another. 



196. Abnormal development of adipose tissue. 

 The uniform development of adipose tissue is some- 



