Microscopical morphology of the animal body in health and disease / by C. Heitzmann. With 380 original engravings.
- Carl Heitzmann
- Date:
- 1883
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Microscopical morphology of the animal body in health and disease / by C. Heitzmann. With 380 original engravings. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.
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![II, GENERAL PROPERTIES OF LIVING MATTER.* LIVING, or organized, matter is the substauee which builds up plants as well as aninuils—the simplest infusorium as well as the most highly developed inammal. Clieniisfri/. The question what living matter really is^ cannot yet be answered from a chemical stand-point, and there is reason to doubt whether it ever will ])e settled, inasmuch as it is impos- silile to obtain pure li\'ing matter in a quantity sufficient for chemical analysis. As every substance, also, the living matter must necessaiily be composed of minute particles, whicli can never be seen, even with the highest magnifpng powers, /. p., the simplest units, the so-called molecules, whicli admit of no further division. After Elsl)erg''s at present almost generally adoi)ted designation, we shaU term the molecules of the living matter '' plastidules. Molecides. again, are composed of simple ele- mentary atoms, the (piantity and nature of which give the essential character to every substance. ' While the molecules of inorganic bodies are formed by relatively few atoms, we know that the plastidides are much more complicated in their atomi.stic construction. Every })lastidule is constituted >)y at least five elements, namely: carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, and sulphur. The nature of the union of these elements is a very complicated one in every i)lastidide. but not as yet elucidated. We generally call the organic substances simply proteinates, or * The Cell Docti-ine in the Light of Recent Investigations, .\>»r York- Medical Joiinidt, IS77.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21219163_0039.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
