42 PROTOPLASMIC THEORY OF LIFE. 



the living, moving matter which constitutes the body 

 of the amoeba, the white blood corpuscle, the pus cor- 

 puscle, and so-called naked nuclei, which were to be 

 detected in animal and vegetable tissues ; and described 

 how this matter could be distinguished from the proper 

 tissue. 



Then in 1860 he wrote those "Lectures on the 

 Structure of the Simple Tissues of the Human Body," 

 which were delivered before the Royal College of 

 Physicians in 1861 ; and which, I believe, are destined 

 to mark an epoch in the progress of Physiological 

 Science. Since then Dr. Beale has gone on completing 

 and expanding his system and filling up the details, 

 and has carried it out into pathology to an extent of 

 completeness and consistency marvellous for the short 

 time as yet given, and as being the work of one man : a 

 fact which in itself shows he has seized on one great 

 and central principle, which enables him to bring into 

 practical harmony a vast number of scattered observa- 

 tions both of his own and of others. 



Nevertheless, his doctrine is substantially the same 

 now as in 1860, and all questions of priority must be 

 judged of from documents existing then, and not from 

 the opinions of men now ; for, as we shall see, a great 

 many of the current teachings on the subject are sub- 

 stantially those first distinctly enunciated by Beale, 

 although attributed to other sources. It is also true 

 that many of the separate facts, and even theories, on 

 subordinate points have been anticipated by others; 

 but he brought them into harmony, and showed their 

 real meaning ; and if the grand theory of the one true 

 living matter was, as we have seen, hypothetically 



