1 882.] Recent Literature. 503 



Morbid growths of a malignant, cancerous nature are by our 

 author believed to originate" in the embryonic bioplasm found in 

 connection with complex structures," yet he also thinks that "the 

 cause of the cancer development operates at a period of time sepa- 

 rated by many, many years from the period of the actual produc- 

 tion of the cancer-cells, ***** even during embry- 

 onic life." Is the last belief, which is warranted by the often 

 observed cancerous diathesis, consistent with the former? 



It is greatly to be regretted that Dr. Beale continues to use the 

 word "bioplasm" for the living formative substance of organisms, 

 called by all naturalists and known to a large portion of the public 

 as protoplasm. It matters not if the word has been, as Dr. Beale 

 states, used improperly, the fact remains that those who use the 

 word protoplasm, use it in exactly the same sense in which Dr. 

 Beale uses " bioplasm." and nothing but confusion can result 

 from the introduction of a new term. 



"Protoplasm" was first introduced to the English public in 

 Von Mohl's work "On the Vegetable Cell," translated in 1851, 

 and was known in Germany several years earlier. The existence 

 of detached particles of living matter, destitute of a cell-wall, and 

 usually smaller than cells, does not, whatever Dr. Beale may as- 

 sert to the contrary, disprove the cell theory, which receives such 

 continued confirmation from the work of microscopists in all parts 

 of the civilized world, that it ought not to be called a theory, but 

 a fact. 



Cells are the bricks of which the Metazoan edifice is constructed, 

 but that edifice is also the manufactory for their construction, and 

 the laboratory for their destruction and the working up again of 

 a great portion of their material. 



What wonder is it, therefore, that in the fluids, and on and in 

 the tissues should be found protoplasm, which has not yet been 

 formed into cells, or which has previously existed in that state? 



The formative powers of protoplasm, and the distinction vary- 

 ing greatly in its width, between the formative and the formed 

 material, are recognized by all biologists, and it is difficult to see 

 what addition Dr. Beale brings to our previous knowledge. 



Dr. Beale, in common with all other biologists, finds that a cer- 

 tain complex physical substance, occurring only in the organic 

 world, possesses properties and performs movements not pos- 

 sessed or performed by other kinds of matter. In common with 

 all other biologists, he is in the most absolute ignorance of the 

 cause of these movements, but. instead of confessing that ignor- 

 ance, he asserts that they can only be accounted for by assuming 

 ye existence of "some sort of supra-physical or vital power." 

 the latter term is admissible as a title for what we cannot explain, 

 out the former term involves an assumption unwarranted by any- 

 ia "»g Within the range of our knowledge. The belief that every un- 

 earned fact is " supra-physical " belongs to the mediaeval stage 



