1885.] 
Transportation of Nutriment. 325 
These play, in supplying the system with albumen, a part 
similar to that of the red globules in respiration. The 
Natui forscher ” summarises the theoretical outcome of 
the author’s results. His conclusions are of the greater 
importance as showing that not merely the transformed 
albumen or peptone, as proved by Hofmeister’s researches, 
and the oxygen, according to less recent observations, but, 
as it has been shown by Wiedersheim and others, the fat in 
the higher animals and all the nourishment in the lower 
foims, even, according to De Vries, the nutritive matter 
for plants, are taken up by cells, or by protoplasm, and 
t.ius transported to the parts where they are required. 
The continued wear and tear to which the organs of the 
animal body are subjected necessitate a constant supply of 
fresh material, as such serve the manifold nutritive sub- 
stances which are conveyed from the digestive system to 
the blood, and by it to all the organs. According to the 
general view these food matters on the way to their destina- 
tion exist in the state of simple solution, or, in the case of 
fat, as emulsion, the impelling forces which convey them 
to such cells as are in need of support are simply the circu- 
lation of blood and diffusion. That any portion of the 
nutrient principles can become temporarily or permanently 
part and parcel of movable cells, in the coats of the intes- 
tine or in the blood-vessels, and can thus carry out the 
function in an organised form, seems, according to this view, 
simply excluded. This supposition, however, extends merely 
to the nutriment introduced through the medium of the 
digestive organs. For the portion of nutriment taken up 
through another channel, i. e., the oxygen, Science has long 
ago come to a very different conclusion, as far, at least, as 
the higher animals are concerned. 
The small quantity of oxygen which can exist in the blood 
in a state of simple solution cannot even come into consi- 
deration as a source of this essential. A sufficient supply 
and a proper distribution are effected only by the circum- 
stance that the blood-discs become charged with oxygen in 
the lungs and deliver it again at the places where it is 
required. Blood containing no discs would be quite inca- 
pable of transporting oxygen from the lungs to the other 
organs. 
Dr. Hofmeister, for the sake of brevity, terms that mode 
of conveying nutrition which involves the co-operation of 
fi'gured elements “ cellular transfer.” If the supply is 
effected, in accordance with the common view just expounded, 
VOL. vii. (third series ) 2 a 
