CHAPTER III 



PROTOPLASM. THE INDIVIDUAL 



To the essential matter of all living organisms the name 

 of Protoplasm has been given. The term, however, is not 

 a very fortunate one, for what it is used to indicate is not 

 a definite basic substance, but a fine mixture or emulsion 

 of many substances in a fine state of suspension. At the 

 same time it seems more than probable that amidst the 

 many different molecular " species " of the living cell there 

 is always one representing the essential living matter of 

 protoplasm. But beyond the fact that it is proteid in nature 

 we know nothing definite of its composition, the insur- 

 mountable difficulty being that its analysis involves its 

 death ; and clearly living proteid must be a very different 

 substance from dead proteid. To this essential living matter, 

 whose molecule has received the name of " biogen mole- 

 cule," we have ventured to apply the term " basoplasm " 

 in order to distinguish it clearly from protoplasm. It can 

 be well understood that there are many distinct varieties 

 of protoplasm and species of basoplasm in the living world, 

 reflections of different lines of evolution under differing 

 environmental influence. 



All Growth is Evolution. From the conjugation of 

 two gametes to their restoration at the end of the Individual 

 cycle there is a straight path of evolution, and in the tissue 

 differentiation of the higher-growth types we have the 

 side-path evolution of cell-species ; and similarly within 

 each cell there are different species of substances, molecules, 

 and atoms. 



In descriptions of simple or elementary protoplasm it 

 has been customary to refer to one of the most structurally 



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