On the structure and growth of the tissues, and on life : ten lectures delivered at King's College, London.

  • Beale, Lionel S. (Lionel Smith), 1828-1906.
Date:
1865
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the structure and growth of the tissues, and on life : ten lectures delivered at King's College, London. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    ox TllK S'rUUC't'L'UK AND elUOWTll OF I I.S.SI'H.S. 20ri wbicli the particles becamoliv ing,—centri/'ugal. The smallust living particle must be of complex composition ; but how the elements are related to each other, how they are influ- enced by their forces, or whether they affect or are affected by matter at a distance from them, there is no evidence to show. It seems to me probable that the ordinary forces of the matter of which the active living particles are com- posed are in abeyance. The changes which occur cannot be explained by physical and chemical laws. The matter before it becomes living exhibits certain well-known pro- perties. The formed material produced exhibits totally different properties, and the disintegration of this formed material gives rise to the manifestation of force in the shape of work performed; but while the matter lives actively the most wonderful changes of place and chemical decompositions of new matter are silently and imperceptibly taking place, and these changes may be communicated to new particles of matter, and so on for ever, or the changes occurring may suddenly and abruptly cease, in which case they can never recur in those particular particles or masses of matter. It need scarcely be said that such phenomena are not known to occur in inanimate matter. Particles which are lifeless attract one another, and in many cases act upon each other, producing compounds •which exhibit well-defined characters. The living par- tides seem neither to attract nor to repel each other, but they possess the power of moving from the centre at which they were produced. The arrangement of the elements in the living particles must be totally different to that which existed before the matter became living, for all living par-