Dr. Beale, on the Ovarian Ova of the Stickleback. 85 
formed by physical and chemical agencies only ; but it is not 
nutrition. Those who advance such arguments confuse the 
process of deposition of insoluble salts in a material pre- 
viously formed, with the actual formation of the material 
itself out of substances of a totally different composition. 
Nutrition then, I think, involves the conversion of lifeless 
pabulum into living germinal matter, and comprises these 
distinct phenomena : 
1. The contact of the soluble pabulum with the germinal 
matter. 
2. The separation of the elements of the nutrient substance 
from their state of combination. 
3. The rearrangement of the elements, and the conversion 
of some of these into new germinal matter. 
Nutrition is impossible unless living germinal matter be 
present, and in every case in which it is known to occur new 
germinal matter is produced. Nutrition is a vital process, 
its occurrence is positive evidence of vitality, and nothing 
like it has ever yet been effected by human ingenuity. 
On the Germinal Matter of the Ovarian Ova of the 
Stickleback. By Dr. Lionel S. Beale, F.R.S., Fellow 
of the Royal College of Physicians, Physician to King’s 
College Hospital, &c. 
Plate VII. 
In a paper “ On the Structure and Growth of the Ovarian 
Ova of the Stickleback,” read before the British Association, 
and published in the January number of the ‘ Microscopical 
Journal,’ Dr. Ransom states that “ the plan of staining tis- 
sues by carmine, as suggested by Dr. Beale, is not to be re- 
commended ; for the ammonia rapidly dissolves the germinal 
vesicle and its contents.” This remark made me feel very anxi- 
ous to study ova prepared by the process of investigation 
condemned by my friend ; and I take the earliest opportunity 
of communicating the results to the Society. It is a source 
of regret to me that I had not prepared some ova for Dr. 
Ransom’s examination before he expressed himself so de- 
cidedly against the mode of investigation from which I have 
derived great advantages. I feel sure from his remarks that 
the process has not been properly carried out by him. 
I shall not occupy time by recounting in detail the new 
