288 
Transact io7is of the 
rAToiithly Microscopical 
L Journal, May 1, ly69. 
The living matter is alone concerned in nutrition, growth, de- 
velopment, and the production of those materials which ultimately 
take the form of tissue, secretion, deposit, as the case may he. It 
alone possesses the power of growth and of producing matter like 
itself out of materials differing from it entirely in properties and 
powers. I therefore called it germinal or living matter^ to distin- 
guish it from ih.e formed material, which is in all cases destitute of 
the properties possessed by the former. The difference between ger- 
minal or living matter and the pabulum which nourishes it, on the one 
hand, and the formed material which is produced by it, on the other, 
is, I believe, absolute. The pabulum does not shade by imperceptible 
gradations into the living matter, and this latter into the formed mate- 
rial ; but the transition from one state into the other is sudden and 
abrupt. The ultimate particles of matter pass from the lifeless into 
the living state, and from the latter into the dead state, suddenly. 
Matter cannot be said to half-live or half-die. It is either dead or 
living, animate or inanimate ; and formed matter has ceased to live. 
Matter may be more or less perfectly or imperfectly formed, and 
formed matter may differ in hardness, colour, consistence, and a 
immber of other qualities, and it may gradually pass from one state 
into the other ; but nothing of this kind is observed in the case of 
the germinal matter. 
Now, since many kinds of formed matter have been called proto- 
plasm as well as many kinds of the matter which is in the living 
state, it is obvious the word could not be used at all. From the time 
when my researches were made to the present, the confusion in 
the use of the word protoplasm has gradually increased, until every 
form of tissue has been thus called, as well as every kind of germinal 
or living matter. And it would only add to the existing confusion 
if an attempt were now made again to alter the meaning of the 
word ; so that, upon the whole, it seems better to use the more simple 
term living matter to denote the growing, active, moving substance 
which is peculiar to everything living, and which is alone concerned 
in the multiplication, growth, and formation of all tissues and 
organisms. Living or germinal matter, formed matter, and joahu- 
lum, are the only terms required in describing the development, 
formation, and growth of tissue, the production of secretions, and 
other phenomena peculiar to living things ; and I have ventured to 
suggest the use of these terms, because they have the advantage of 
being simple. They can be accurately defined and distinguished 
from other terms. They are short, expressive, and can be remem- 
bered without difficulty, and there is an absence of that myste- 
riousness which hangs about so many of our scientific terms in 
ordinary use, and greatly adds to the difficulties experienced by the 
student. 
