Half Hours With Modern Scientists: Lectures and Essays — John Shaqi
Half Hours With Modern Scientists: Lectures and EssaysTyndall, John
Philosophy
Half Hours With Modern Scientists: Lectures and Essays
Tyndall, John
Science
In reference to these, as strengthening the argument, and throwing much
light generally, I break off a moment to say that, very interesting as
they are in themselves, and as Recklinghausen, in especial, has made
them, Mr. Huxley’s theory of them disagrees considerably with the
prevalent German one. He speaks of them as the source of the body in
general, yet, in his Physiology, he talks of the spleen, the lymphatics,
and even the liver—_parts_ of the body—as _their_ source. They are so
few in number that, while Mr. Huxley is thankful to be able to point to
the inside of the lips as a seat for them, they bear to the red
corpuscles only the proportion of 1 to 450. This disproportion, however,
is no bar to Mr. Huxley’s derivation of the latter from the former. But
the fact is questioned. The Germans, generally, for their, part,
describe the colorless, or vagrant, blood-corpuscles as probably media
of conjugation or reparation, but acknowledge their function to be as
yet quite unknown; while Rindfleisch, characterizing the spleen as the
grave of the red, and the womb of the white, corpuscles, evidently
refers the latter to the former. This, indeed, is a matter of direct
assertion with Preyer, who has “shown that pieces of red
blood-corpuscles may be eaten by the amoeboid cells of the frog,” and
holds that the latter (the white corpuscles) proceed directly from the
former (the red corpuscles); so that it seems to be determined in the
mean time that there is no proof of the reverse being the fact.
In function, then, to resume, some protoplasm is vagrant, and of unknown
use. Some again produces pepsine, and some fat. Some at least contains
pigment. Then there is nerve-protoplasm, brain-protoplasm,
bone-protoplasm, muscle-protoplasm, and protoplasm of all the other
tissues, no one of which but produces only its own kind, and is
uninterchangeable with the rest. Lastly, on this head, we have to point
to the overwhelming fact that there is the infinitely different
protoplasm of the various infinitely different plants and animals, in
each of which its own protoplasm, as in the case of that of the various
tissues, but produces its own kind, and is uninterchangeable with that
of the rest.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account