The President's Address. By L. S. Becde, F.B.S. 189 



I would here remark generally, that if very little non-living 

 matter is associated with the living matter, the latter may move in 

 any direction with equal facility, and one part of a mass may place 

 itself above or in advance of another portion just as easily as 

 it could descend below it. But when a layer of formed material 

 has been produced on the surface of the living matter, the entire 

 elementary part becomes subject to gravitation in consequence of 

 the quantity of non-living matter that is formed. 



There is not, I think, any good reason for accepting the con- 

 clusion that one of a collection of elementary parts, at any period of 

 development, can sympathize or otherwise influence the actions of 

 others, as Virchow seems to think. The suggestion that any force 

 or power acting, as it were, from a centre, governs, regulates, and 

 determines the changes taking place in surrounding and more 

 or less distant particles, is, in my opinion, inadmissible. We 

 might, with as much show of reason, refer the harmonious action 

 of the several parts of the adult organism to some controlling or 

 governing power situated we know not where, influencing, we know 

 not how, actions of many different kinds occurring at considerable 

 distances from the seat of its existence. Although very high 

 authorities have given their sanction to views of the kind, and 

 have advocated the existence in connection with each individual 

 organism of some power or force capable of operating through 

 material of even considerable thickness and of controlling matter 

 at a distance, I venture to assert that the conclusions are not 

 supported by the results of observation and experiment. The idea 

 of one particle of living matter influencing other particles at a dis- 

 tance from it, much less sympathizing with or being affected by vital 

 changes occurring in them, cannot, I think, be entertained by any 

 one who has studied the phenomena as they occur in living beings. 



One can indeed conceive tissues of the most elaborate character, 

 and new matter of the most wonderful properties and most complex 

 composition, being developed in the most regular and orderly 

 manner without supposing that any governing or controlling power 

 acts upon them all, as it were, from a centre. That the most 

 wonderful order is manifest in the arrangement of the component 

 elementary parts, say, of a growing leaf, must be obvious to every 

 one who has examined it ; but I feel confident that as soon as each 

 living particle has been detached from the mass which preceded, it 

 is no longer influenced by the latter, and does not influence neigh- 

 bouring masses. Each may be pressed upon by its neighbours, and 

 press upon them in turn during growth, but there is no reason to 

 suppose that any one determines the composition, governs the motion, 

 or regulates the action of others. The nutrient matter is distri- 

 buted" to all by vessels or channels running amongst the several 

 collections. Those elementary parts farthest from the nutrient 



Ser. 2.— Vol. I. P 



