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THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 



219 



still to be considered as dependent upon the properties 

 of the living matter itself under the influence of its 

 medium, or are we to suppose that suddenly, with the 

 assumption of this pseudo ' cell ' form, there has arisen 

 an entirely new force capable of inducing certain de- 

 velopmental changes not otherwise producible? The 

 answers to these questions cannot, we think^ be doubt- 

 ful; and yet if we were to accept some theories at 

 present in vogue, we should have to believe in the 

 truth of the latter assumption 1. 



All the phenomena of so-called 'endogenous cell- 

 formation' are therefore, if rightly interpreted, capable 

 of strengthening our belief in the necessity for the 

 existence of mere matter of a particular kind as the 

 physiological basis of all life-phenomena. They equally 

 lead us to reject as preposterous the doctrine of 

 Virchow that the cell is the ultimate vital unit, or, 

 as he expresses it, that ' the cell is really the ultimate 

 morphological unit in which there is any manifestation 



^ It may be well at this stage to call attention to the fact that the 

 views of Dr. Beale are so far quite in accordance with those above 

 expressed. He believes in the formless nature of primitive living matter, 

 and in the absence of any special functions or importance attaching to 

 the nucleus. "We have already seen that he regards the cell-wall, when 

 present, as a dead and inert appanage of the living matter within. Thus 

 the only active potential part is the living but structureless germinal 

 matter. He says, moreover, *it must be borne in mind that at all 

 periods of life, in certain parts of the textures and organs, and in the 

 nutrient fluids, are masses of germinal matter, destitute of any cell-wall* 

 and exactly resembling those of which at an early period the embryo is 

 entirely composed.' See 'Protoplasm,' second ed. pp. 45-47, 48, 59. 



