THE NATURE OF LIEE. 347 



11. Years ago. our courses of physiology, attended by medi- 

 cal students, included such matters as those I have brought 

 before you, bearing as you must perceive, in an important 

 degree, upon the nature of man, his growth and action ; but 

 some years ago physiology was caused by teachers to 

 assume more and more a physical aspect, and physics and 

 chemistry have at last almost replaced every physiological 

 idea. The living body becomes a physical laboratory. In 

 fact one may almost say that physiology is gradually being 

 caused to take the position of a mere department of physics 

 and chemistry. The chemist and physicist examined the 

 constituents of dead organisms, and so the lifeless compoiuids 

 obtained, were promoted to life, as if they had been there 

 when the body was alive. Physiological investigation 

 becomes the investigation of the substances resulting from 

 the death of the Bioplasm and the lifeless tissue of a dead 

 thing, by physics and chemistry. Perhaps some of my friends 

 may think it a little hard to put it in that way. We have, 

 however, raised a new biology on the ashes of a dead 

 physiology, and it is to be hoped that a vital philosophy 

 will soon follow. 



12. Everybody knows that Biology is from that little 

 expressi\^e word /9(09, life. Bios means life; and I doubt 

 whether the meaning of the word will ever be changed. 

 We may alter the meaning of physiology and indeed the 

 meaning has been altered more than once as physical investiga- 

 tion advanced. Bios is an old word. We find bios in biology 

 and bioplasm, which I trust will take the place of the vague 

 "• protoplasm " which may be living or dead or roasted, but 

 Bioplasm is livin<j only. As soon as the life, the bios, has 

 ceased, what ivas living only remains — no longer Bioplasm. 

 Although we do not know exactly what /3i09 (life) is, at any 

 rate it is perfectly distinct and dift'ereut from any force or 

 power or property that we know of in nature. No machinery, 

 or mechanism, or apparatus has ever been shoivn in the living 

 matter Avhich I have spoken of as bioplasm. 



13. Now I had hoped to have been able to say something 

 about the heart and one or two other matters, but my 

 excellent friend, Captain Petrie, our Hon. Secretary, hinted 

 to me, as I was coming up, that I need not finish my remarks 

 to-day, so that if you are not utterly tired of vitality, I shall 

 be very happy to say more on some other convenient 

 occasion ; and, as I hope will be the case, if any friends wish 

 to ask any questions and will kindly promote discussion 



