646 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. II. No. 46. 



far as we have evidence complexity and 

 simplicity of composition are equally over- 

 come by living power. The change seems 

 to be carried out in all cases in the most 

 perfect manner, and very quickly. The 

 view of the building up from simple to com- 

 plex is not justified. The atoms seem to take 

 up their appointed positions and relations 

 as if impelled by an irresitable power, and ac- 

 cording to the same principles in every case, 

 from the lowest to the highest organisms. 

 The members of the profession and all 

 students are to be congratulated upon the 

 addition, during the past three j^ears, of a 

 new subject to those which have long 

 formed the basis of medical education. The 

 careful study of elementary biology must 

 now be taken up by every medical student 

 in the early part of his course. He has to 

 work with the microscope and to become 

 familiar with the use of instruments for 

 delicate research which were not known to 

 the advanced investigators of fifty years 

 ago. Every student acquires real knowl- 

 edge of the minute structure of the body, 

 and may form his own conception of the 

 general nature of the wonderful changes 

 characteristic of living things, from the 

 lowest organisms to man himself. I hope 

 you have all seen what happens when a 

 particle of living matter, say, of an amoeba, 

 exhibits what we call vital movements, and 

 have observed portions moving away from 

 the general mass. Such portions, becoming 

 detached, begin a new and independent 

 life, taking up nutriment on their own ac- 

 count, and growing like the parent organ- 

 ism from which they have been detached, 

 or have detached themselves, and at length 

 increase and multiply and at last die, like 

 all other things that live. Some have 

 affirmed that this living matter is ' like ' a 

 mixture of oil and mucilage, but those who 

 have studied practical elementary biology 

 will not be misled by such a ' likeness.' 

 Would that people generally could also 



study some of these simple living organisms 

 and learn the differences between that 

 which lives and assimilates, and grows and 

 dies, and that which does not live. No 

 one who had thought over what he had 

 seen would be persuaded to assent to the 

 proposition that the clear structureless liv- 

 ing matter should be regarded as a form of 

 machine, molecular or otherwise. When 

 you examined this living matter under a 

 high power I am sure you must have felt 

 astonished that any one could speak of 

 such a thing as a mechanism or as a labora- 

 tory. The moving projections or diverticula 

 just alluded to, like those of leucocytes and 

 pus and miicus corpuscles, are well deserv- 

 ing of your further attentive study. Watch 

 carefully the movements and notice how 

 very clear and transparent is the moving 

 matter. In some you cannot discern a 

 single granule even with the aid of the 

 highest powers, and I think when you do 

 see granules and carefully study their 

 movements you will agree with me in the 

 conclusion that it is not in these visible 

 granules that the moving power resides, 

 but that the visible particles are moved by 

 the clear, soft, structureless substance of 

 which the diverticula consist. The process 

 of growth may continue by the taking up 

 of non-living matter by the transparent, 

 moving, living substance and the com- 

 munication to it of amceba life, through 

 generations. The process has proceeded 

 for thousands of years, but whether an 

 atom of the matter of the parental organ- 

 ism remains, except for a very short time 

 as a constituent part of the detached de- 

 scendant, seems to rest upon too fanciful a 

 basis to entitle the living changing matter 

 to be regarded as immortal. Think over 

 what you have seen and consider how the 

 wonderful movements are occasioned, how 

 the living matter communicates its powers 

 to the non-living and grows and multiplies. 

 Can it be merely chemical change or me- 



