THE NATURE OF LIFE. 345 



■Greek — or even physics, without finding Greek words ; and, 

 if we study medicine — Avliy the father of medicine was a 

 Greek, and there is hardly a disease we can name without 

 talking Greek. It is indeed mysterious why people oppose 

 the introduction of Greek into our schools. If a boy is 

 to be taught science his difficulty is much increased if he 

 has not been taught a little Greek. I know this by 

 experience, for I have been teaching all my life, and students 

 of pathology or medicine get on but slowly if they are quite 

 ignorant of Greek. A little Greek is a great help, for Ave 

 are saved the trouble of looking out many Avords in diction- 

 aries, and the memory retains the Avord Avith ease — almost by 

 instinct if the student understands its meaning and knoAvs 

 its root. How many a gardener recollects the enormous 

 number of names of plants is Avonderful, as he depends 

 solely on memory. 



\K During the last forty or fifty years, microscopical in- 

 vestigation has A^astly improA^ed, for we are able noAv to use 

 very high magnifying poAvers. We make careful draAvings of 

 Avhat Ave see, and Ave can distinguish, in many instances, the 

 difference betAveen living matter and matter lohich is formed 

 from the living matter. The difference is made A'ery clear 

 by tinting the liAang matter just after death, as indicated in 

 many of my published draAvings. 



I Avill not attempt to go into a description of CA^en one of 

 these enlarged draAvings ; but I beg you just to notice the red 

 circular or oval spots in each, indicating living matter ; many 

 of these are the so-called nuclei of the tissue, and called 

 by some cells, by others corpuscles, the adjacent bodies 

 or cells in some cases also consist in part of liA^ing matter. 

 These tissues are all coloured artificially by staining Avith an 

 alkaline solution of carmine immediately after the tissue or 

 organ is taken from the body of a recently dead animal. 

 You see then in all of these diagrams the living particles I 

 have spoken of as Bioplasm coloured red. The matter round 

 this, Avhich forms the tissue — the matter, for example, Avhicli 

 constitutes fibrous tissue, gristle, tendon, cartilage, and so 

 on, is situated betAveen or around the living particles of 

 living matter. If you take a small A^ery thin section 

 of ordinary cartilage, this is the appearance you get. The 

 diagram shoAvs a A'ery important point, that the material 

 upon Avhicli the character of the tissue depends is really 

 'produced bi/ these little particles of living mattev. If you take 

 a thin section of the cartilage of a kitten Avhich contains the 



