CHAPTER IV. 

 BEALE'S PROTOPLASMIC THEORY. 



AMIDST the bewildering variety and confusion of the 

 different opinions up to this time, we are struck with 

 the appositeness of a remark by Leydig on the func- 

 tion of the instrument which has revealed so much. 

 " We microscopists," says he, " it appears to me, find 

 ourselves, alas, in the position of one who has been 

 for a long time studying ' life ' as he would a meadow 

 or a wood from a distance, and fancies that if he could 

 only get nearer, so as to see under his eye the indi- 

 vidual plants which made up the verdant surface, he 

 would at once attain to a better understanding of the 

 process of growth of the plant and the fading of the 

 leaf. Truly, he would learn many new things of in- 

 terest, but the main point would remain as much a 

 riddle as before : the same questions would remain to 

 be answered, but they would apply now to the indi- 

 vidual plant instead of the verdant landscape as a 

 whole." 



During the preceding quarter of a century we have 

 been brought nearer, and seen much that is interest- 



