SPECIFIC KINDS OF PROTOPLASM. 75 



Although in physical aspect all kinds of protoplasm 

 are indistinguishable, yet inherent, specific vital pro- 

 perties of different kinds, in the same individual, are 

 fully recognized, and repeatedly dilated on, by Dr. 

 Beale. These differences are displayed in the reaction 

 with external agencies and pabulum; and although 

 these may exert a certain influence on the formative 

 process, "it is quite certain that no conceivable altera- 

 tion in external conditions will cause the bioplasm, 

 which was to produce muscle, to give rise to nerve, 

 cartilage, or elastic tissue " (" Biopl.," 127). As respects 

 the modifying influence of external agencies, " a tem- 

 perature at which one kind of protoplasm will live and 

 grow actively will be fatal to many other kinds. So, 

 too, as regards pabulum, substances which are appro- 

 priated by one form of bioplasm will act as a poison to 

 another. . . . The formed material resulting varies to 

 some extent if the conditions under which its produc- 

 tion takes place be modified . . . but under no circum- 

 stances whatever do external conditions determine the 

 production of a texture higher than that which the 

 germinal matter was destined to produce originally." 



This is the same as Fletcher's doctrine of specific 

 irritability residing in each separate tissue and part in 

 virtue of its specific kind of irritable matter, and, 

 when taken in conjunction with the doctrine of spe- 

 cific stimuli, it has a most important bearing on tho 

 whole of physiology, pathology, and therapeutics. 



In Dr. Beale's theory thus, with the exception of a 

 few" chemical changes that may take place in the 

 formed material after its production, there is no such 

 thing as the passage of materials from the blood, and 



