Protoplasm, or, Life, force, and matter / by Lionel S. Beale.

  • Lionel Smith Beale
Date:
1870
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Protoplasm, or, Life, force, and matter / by Lionel S. Beale. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    of germinal matter, destitute of any cell-wall, and exactly resembling those of which at an early period the embryo is entirely composed. White blood and lymph corpuscles, chyle corpuscles, many of the corpuscles in the spleen, thymus and thyroid, corpuscles in the solitary glands, in the villi, some of those upon the surface of mucous mem- branes, some in connection with muscle, nerve, bone, carti- lage, and some other tissues, are of this nature, and consist of living germinal matter, with mere traces of soft formed material around each mass. There is no structure through which these soft living particles, or small portions of living matter detached from them, may not make their way. The destruction of tissue may be very quickly effected by the growth and multiplication of such masses of gemiinal matter. Many of the changes in disease result from the undue growth of this substance, and indeed there is no operation peculiar to living beings in which germinal or living matter does not take part. Any sketch of the struc- ture of the cell would be incomplete without an account of some of the essential alterations which occur in it in disease. I propose, therefore, to refer very briefly to the general nature of some of the most important morbid changes. Within certain Umits, the conditions under which cells ordinarily live may be modified without any departure from the healthy state, but if the conditions be very considerably changed, disease may result, or the cell may die. For instance, if cells, which in their normal state grow slowly, be supplied with an excess of nutrient pabulum, and increase in number very quickly, a morbid state is engendered. Or if, on the other hand, the rate at which multiplication takes
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