74 BEALE'S PROTOPLASMIC THEORY. 



its appearance. It results from changes in the living matter 

 itself. A portion of this bioplasm dies, and, among the 

 substances resulting from its death are fatty matter, which 

 being insoluble remains, and soluble substances which are 

 carried away in the blood ; starch globules and other secondary 

 deposits, formed in the interior of elementary parts, are 

 produced in the same manner by the death of the bio- 

 plasm. The fatty matter does not come from the blood 

 as fat, and deposit itself in the cell, nor is it formed by 

 the collection and aggregation of excessively minute granules, 

 which traverse the vascular walls suspended in serum, nor is it 

 precipitated from the nutrient fluid after the manner of cry- 

 stals ; but it invariably results from the transformation of 

 living matter, and different kinds of living matter, as is well 

 known, will produce different kinds of fat. The properties and 

 composition of fat in different animals differ, because the 

 powers of the bioplasm or living matter of each animal are so 

 different" (Todd and Bowman, p. 301.) 



In a similar manner, substantially, are performed all 

 the formative and secreting functions of life, and, as 

 above said, all the strictly vital processes. In the pro- 

 duction of tissues and secretions, or formed material of 

 any kind, whether solid, liquid, or gaseous, whether 

 coloured or colourless, or hard or soft, soluble or in- 

 soluble, their formation depends on the relation which 

 the elements of the living matter were made to 

 assume towards each other during the living state. 

 The very same elements which lived in the living mat- 

 ter always enter into the composition of the formed 

 material. The relation of the elements to each other 

 during the living state in the different kinds of proto- 

 plasm is so definite that from the same kind of living 

 matter, under similar conditions, the same formed sub- 

 stances result (" Microscope," p. 313). 



