THE CELL DOCTRINE. 139 



a thing formed). It is for this reason that I would 

 prefer to reject the term altogether, but it has come 

 to be 80 closely associated with this portion of the 

 cell, that such omission would now seem impossible. 



It is at least probable that this " protoplasm " or cell- 

 contents, the portion of the cell exterior to the nu- 

 cleus, is derived from the latter by a change in its 

 structure and composition, a change which in the 

 absence of more accurate knowledge we may char- 

 acterize as of the nature of oxidation. But what- 

 ever this change is, its efl'ect is to alter entirely the 

 properties of the matter in which it has taken place. 

 So that it no longer possesses the power of growth 

 through active efforts of nutrition, that is, by con- 

 verting the pabulum of the blood into material like 

 itself, but continues to grow at the expense of the 

 nucleus or bioplasm, which is gradually converted 

 into it. It is this to which Beale has applied the 

 name of "dead" or "formed" material, but for 

 which I prefer the term non- germinal, since this ac- 

 curately marks the property which it has lost, and 

 it is not always lifeless in any other sense, because 

 in it still reside properties which are inconsistent i 

 with the state known as death. Thus the function 

 of the tissue of which the cell forms a part commonly 

 resides in the cell-contents or non-germinal matter, 

 as that of " contractility " in muscle and " neu- 

 ridity " in nervous tissues. In some situations it is 

 truly dead, as where it becomes the secreition of glands, 

 as milk and bile. 



It has already been stated that the " cell-wall " 

 when present is simply condensed periphery of cell- 



