Page:Life and death (1911).djvu/187

 CHAPTER III.

THE CHEMICAL UNITY OF LIVING BEINGS.

The varieties and essential unity of the protoplasm—Its affinity for oxygen—The chemical composition of protoplasm—Its characteristic substances.—§ 1. The different categories of albuminoid substances—Nucleo-proteids—Albumins and histones—Nucleins.—§ 2. Constitution of nucleins.—§ 3. Constitution of histones and albumins—Schultzenberger's analysis of albumin—Kossol's analysis—The hexonic nucleus.

The chemical unity of living beings corresponds to their morphological unity.

The Varieties and Essential Unity of the Protoplasm.—One essential feature of the living being is that it is composed of matter peculiar to it, which is called living matter, or protoplasm. But this is a somewhat incorrect way of expressing the facts. There is no unique living matter, no single protoplasm; their number is infinite, there are as many as there are distinct individuals. However like one man may be to another, we are compelled to admit that they differ according to the substance of which they are constituted. That of the first offers a certain characteristic personal to the first, and found in all his anatomical elements; similarly for the second. With Le Dantec we shall say that the chemical substance of Primus is not only of the substance of man, but in all parts of his body and in all his con