The Vitality and Organization of Protoplasm (Classic Reprint)

Download or read book The Vitality and Organization of Protoplasm (Classic Reprint) written by Edmund Montgomery and published by . This book was released on 2015-08-05 with total page 90 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from The Vitality and Organization of Protoplasm The problem to be here considered is that of vitality. The things we perceive consist of what is physically and chemically designated as "matter." This irrespective of whatever theory may be formed regarding the real consistency of what is thus designated. In plants and animals this material substance is found to be alive. It manifests the peculiar phenomena that are called vital, and which essentially distinguish living beings from lifeless things. It is, therefore, above all, incumbent upon biology, as the science of life, to seek to ascertain the special conditions which give rise to the vital properties of the substance composing plants and animals. The explanation of vitality to be here advanced has been arrived at as the result of many years of observation devoted to the vital phenomena of primitive forms of life, such as the Protozoa. No general definition of life, such as philosophizing biologists have abundantly advanced, can here at all avail. Our insight into the process which are operative in the manifestation of vital phenomena, has nowise been furthered by any of these conceptual abstractions. But neither, it must be confessed, has biology, despite its minute investigations and diligent endeavors, as yet succeeded in disclosing the true nature of vitality. Guided by the cell-theory and purely mechanical principles, it has vainly searched for it in the minute structure, the intimate movements, and the chemical constitution of the single cells composing multicellular organisms; and quite especially in the striking occurrences accompanying their mitotic self-division. For, according to the cell-theory, complex organisms are made up of numberless autonomous vital units or elementary organisms, which multiply by means of self-division. Such complex or multicellular beings have then to be regarded, not as being themselves unitary individuals; but, on the contrary, as being in reality aggregates of elementary units. In accordance with the cell-theory, each separate cell, as an autonomous vital unit, must be the bearer of all that essentially constitutes vitality. Hence the minute investigation of every phase of its vital manifestations, of every visible trace of the changes it undergoes. But, however instructive in other respects, it can not be said that the result of all these patient and accurate observations, carried on by a host of competent investigators, has conduced to throw any decisive light on the real nature of vitality. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.