"j^iiS.jKrtK'] lioyal Microscopical Society. ■ 287 
verted into living protoplasm, or a dead slieep into a living man. 
It is remarkable that Huxley himself, some sixteen years ago, drew 
a distinction between living and non-living matter wbicli he now 
utterly ignores. He remarked that the stone, the gas, the crystal, 
had an inertia, and tended to remain as they were unless some 
external influence affected them ; but that living things were 
characterized by the very opposite tendencies. He referred also to 
" the faculty of pursuing their own course " and the " inherent law 
of change in living beings." In 1853, the same authority actually 
found fault with those who attempted to reduce life to " mere attrac- 
tions and repulsions," and who considered physiology " simply as a 
complex branch of mere physics." He also went so far as to 
remark that " vitality is a property inherent in certain kinds of 
matter." 
To sum up in few words. The term protoplasm has been 
applied to the viscid nitrogenous > substance within the primordial 
utricle of the vegetable cell and to the threads and filaments formed 
in this matter ; to the primordial utricle itself ; to this and the sub- 
stances which it encloses ; and to all these things, together with the 
cellulose wall ; to the matter composing the sarcode of the foramini- 
fera ; to that which constitutes the amoeba, white blood-corpuscle, 
and other naked masses of germinal matter ; to the matter between 
the so-called nucleus and muscular tissue, and to the contractile 
matter itself ; to everything which exhibits contractility ; to nerve- 
fibres, and to other structures possessing remarkable endowments ; 
to the soft matter within an elementary part, as a cell of epithelium ; 
to the hard external part of such a cell ; to the entire epithelial cell. 
Inanimate albuminous matter has been regarded as protoplasm. 
Living things have been spoken of as masses of protoplasm ; the 
same things dead have been said to be protoplasm. If the matter 
be boiled or roasted, it is still protoplasm ; and there seems no 
reason why it should not be dissolved, and yet retain its name 
protoplasm. 
Living Matter. 
In conclusion, I venture to allude very briefly to my own views 
concerning the living matter of living beings. 
When describing the results of my investigations upon the 
changes taking place during the development of the cells or ele- 
mentary parts of the different tissues, in 1860, I should gladly 
have made use of the term protoplasm ; but I found that at that 
time it had been applied to matter existing in two very different 
states — living and formed. As my investigations proceeded, I 
became more and more convinced of this remarkable distinction, 
and my account would have been quite unintelligible if I had not 
employed a different word in speaking of matter in each state. 
