PHYSICAL STATE OF PROTOPLASM. 55 



other chemical elements, which may vary, and that 

 the most notable phenomenon which attracts attention 

 at death is the formation of a spontaneously coagu- 

 lable substance. The coagulation of the fibrin of the 

 blood, and the stiffening of the muscles, from formation 

 in those of the same or of an allied substance, have 

 long been objects of common observation. Kiihne 

 holds the coagulable substance of the muscles to be 

 somewhat different from fibrin, and names it myosin, 

 but he maintains that the coagulable matter of the 

 universally diffused protoplasm depends on myosin, and 

 that it is on this as well as the stiffening of the muscles 

 that the rigor mortis depends. 



That the final stage of the formation of fibrin is a 

 mere chemical combination is now established; but 

 the precursors of it are produced by the death of 

 living matter, although, probably, not both at the same 

 time. Dr. Beale does not pronounce a definite opinion 

 <on the nature of the coagulable matter of protoplasm. 



An acid reaction is shown by the sudden death of 

 .all kinds of protoplasm. The totally different condi- 

 tions under which a compound, capable of being also 

 .made in the laboratory, is made by the living matter, 

 is one of the strongest arguments for the radically 

 different chemical state of the living matter from that 

 in which it subsists in the inorganic condition. This 

 would require a volume to illustrate fully, so it may 

 be merely alluded to as an argument. 



On the Physical State of the Protoplasm. " The 

 living matter is in all cases perfectly clear and trans- 

 parent. It never exhibits structure ; is invariably 

 colourless." The supposed granules are merely fatty 



