PROF. LIONEL 8. BEALE, F.R.C.P., F.R.S.. ON VITALITY. 61 
almost entirely of living matter, which contains perhaps 
more than 90 per cent. of water. As growth proceeds, in 
many tissues, the little living particles of bioplasm become 
gradually separated a little from one another by the material 
which is slowly formed on the surface of or between each. 
This matter has been formed by the living matter, but it is 
no longer living. It may be called formed matter. In this 
diagram the living matter is coloured red, but the formed 
matter is not coloured. If I take a very thin piece of 
cartilage of a kitten at birth, and compare it with that of 
another six weeks old, and with yet another from a young 
cat, and lastly with one from a mature animal, all having 
been prepared and stained in precisely the same manner, you 
will find the proportion of living matter in the cartilage tissue, 
relatively to the amount of intervening formed material, is 
much greater in the young than in the older and fully developed 
animals. These changes are continually going on, not only 
in one, but in all the tissues of the body, and at the same 
time, as the several textures advance towards their fully 
developed state—towards maturity. 
Now this colourless material in each drawing is that which 
does not take up the carmine colouring matter. It is formed 
matter, structure, which is no longer living, and is incapable of 
growth and of forming more matter like itself ; and in cartilage, 
fibrous tissue, hair, nail, horn, the tissue or formed matter 
becomes nearly dry. On the other hand, the living matter, 
in its natural livmg state, is invariably structureless and 
colourless, and contains a very large proportion of water— 
very often as much as, and [| think sometimes even more 
than, 95 per cent. But I do not think a single instance can 
be brought forward in which living growing matter 
contained much less than 80 per cent. of water. In a very 
active state of vitality, no doubt living matter may be 
associated with a much larger percentage of water for a 
time. You cannot have living matter without a large 
quantity of water being associated with the minute amount 
of solid matter. This living matter or bioplasm is, as I have 
said, colourless and structureless. All matter that is alive— 
that exhibits vital action, which is concerned in vital move- 
ments, changes, and the living matter which takes part in 
touch, taste, sight, or hearing, and is present in all sense 
organs, in all forms of animal life—is living, and upon it 
alone vital activity entirely depends. 
I do not believe there is an action, a thought, or a vital 
