198 ALFRED T. SCHOFIELD, ESQ,^ M.D., M.R.C.S., ON 



into or gradually pass into that which is not in the living state, or 

 which may have just ceased to live. Hence I think it justiBable 

 to give a definite name to the matter which is in the temporary 

 living state, and the word bioplasm seems to apply. To talk of 

 living protoplasm and dead or lifeless protoplasm can scarcely bo 

 helpful, for by so doing we assume that protoplasm may cease to 

 live and still be protoplasm, that in fact we may have protoplasm 

 in two states — living and dead protoplasm. To speak of living 

 and non-living or dead biopla>im would be contradictory, for when 

 bioplasm ceases to live, we have no longer bioplasm, but only life- 

 less stihstances which result at the death of bioplasm, in fact non- 

 living compounds formed when bioplasm ceases to live. These 

 may differ much in composition and properties according to the 

 conditions under which the death of the bioplasm or living matter 

 occurs, and the substances thus formed cannot live again, unless 

 they are taken up and appropriated by matter already living. 



During the living state of the matter its ordinary properties are 

 suspended — the affinities of its constituent elements cease to 

 operate for the time — while they are moved, and rearranged and 

 made to take new positions with respect to one another. To 

 subject matter in the living state to chemical analysis is impossi- 

 ble, because in the attempt to do so, the living matter is killed, 

 and we have no longer the actual living matter to deal with, but 

 only the substances formed at its death. Matter weighs exactly 

 the same in its living and dead state. It must, I think, be 

 admitted that life or living power is not due to the matter itself, 

 or to its properties, or to the properties of any substances which 

 can be obtained from it. 



As is well known, of the many elements discovered, those which 

 contribute to the matter alone capable of living, are but very few, 

 and these same elements have been, are, and there is reason to think 

 will continue to be the essential constituents of every living organism 

 belonging to this world — whether the living organism or organisms, 

 of the first beginning, or the very last that may survive without 

 leaving descendants. 



Life then is not a property of mere matter, but a power or 



