34-1 PROFESSOR LIONEL S. BEALE, F.R.S., ON 



out oftlie vital difficulty, and say, to what the peculiarity ofall 

 life is to bo attributed. That there is uo difference, or that 

 there is only a difference of degree and not a difference of 

 kind, between the livinc; matter and the same matter dead, 

 and every form of non-living- matter, is an opinion, which I do 

 Jiot believe any reasonable being will now defend. Thcj 

 living tlung is in one state and the dead thing is in an 

 ahsohdchj diffei-euf state. There can be no analogy whatever 

 between the living condition and the non-living condition. 

 In other words the diMinctlon between living matter of any kind., 

 however minute — xcliatever may be the quantity — and the same 

 matter, dead, is absolute. No gradual change can be proved 

 when a living particle dies. The actual matter involved 

 passes from one state to another, suddenly — not gradually, 

 and the difference between the two slates, I think, must be, 

 admitted to 1)C truly expressed l)y the Avord absolute. The 

 identical matter of the livinf/ particle that dies necer lives again. 

 The matter of which it was composed of course may be, 

 and almost imiversally is, taken up by other forms of living 

 matter belonging to living things; but the same material 

 particles which during life lield certain definite relations 

 to one another in the living state, cannot possibly exhibit 

 those same relations again. The death of a particle, like its 

 life, is once only. The jDroducts which result from its death 

 are another matter altogether. The life is lost for ever and 

 can never be restored; and although we are told of many 

 cases of prolonged dormant vitality, and so on — such cases 

 prove nothing. A thing dormant is not dead. Some of the 

 lower creatures may be dried and moistened again, and come 

 to life, apparently, but who has proved that all the matter of 

 which those bodies were composed was dead? Can any 

 living matter be dried? Can any living matter exist which 

 does not contain water? No properly desiccated living 

 thing survives, or can bo revived. Everything liA'iug of 

 which we have actual knowledge and experience must 

 absolutely die. 



8. Now all living matter has certain definite pow^ers and 

 may therefore be referred to under one particular name, and 

 it does seem to me that the most convenient word to indicate 

 Hving matter, by whicli to distinguish it from matter in any 

 other state, is bioj)lasui. It is a Greek woi'd. and for tliirty 

 or forty years there has been a tendency to Ijnd fault witli 

 Cireek ; but it is difficult for many of us to understand this, 

 as Ave can liardly read a page of chemistry or botany without 



