ABSORPTION. 85 



evanescent, spongy texture results, which destroys the poor 

 patient by its enormous exactions upon his terribly exhausted 

 system (" Oxford Lectures," p. 579). 



Again, speaking of cartilage, Dr. Beale says : " The 

 germinal matter may even appropriate the formed 

 material itself as we found appeared in the case of the 

 formed material of mildew, epithelium,, and other kinds 

 of this substance " (" Oxford Lectures "). 



Again, in speaking of the absorption of fat he says : 



" As fatty matter is formed from bioplasm, so its removal 

 is effected only through the instrumentality of this living 

 matter. It cannot be removed until it has been again taken 

 up and reconverted into bioplasm. Moreover the same bio- 

 plasm is instrumental in both operations. In the one case 

 taking certain constituents from the blood, increasing at their 

 expense and then undergoing conversion into fatty and other 

 matters. In the other, growing at the expense of the fatty 

 matter already produced, and becoming resolved into substances 

 which find their way back again into the blood, and which are 

 at length appropriated in part by other forms of bioplasm of 

 the body. .... In the winter, when the fat of the fat bodies 

 of the frog are being absorbed, the bioplasm of each vesicle can 

 be seen spreading around the fatty matter, which gradually 

 diminishes in amount in consequence of its conversion into 

 bioplasm. On the distal side of the vesicle, phenomena of 

 another kind are proceeding. The bioplasm is there undergoing 

 change and becoming resolved into substances which are imme- 

 diately taken up by the bioplasm of the blood and the blood- 

 vessels " (" Biopl." p. 138). 



Dr. Beale sums up the action of the protoplasm thus : " Such 

 is the marvellous power of this living material that there are 

 probably few things in nature that are proof against its de- 

 stroying power. The hardest material, even flint itself, yields 

 to the slow but sure disintegrating action of bioplasm. The 

 most insoluble materials as well as the most soluble are appro- 

 priated "(p. 160). 



