A. E. HILTON OX THE LIFE-PHASES OF MYCETOZOA. 50 



TIrere now comes to light another important fact. Tiie final 

 act of the plasm while settling down to equilibrium is a last 

 process of purification, resulting in the secretion of the delicate 

 spore-shells at the surfaces of spheres of influence which radiate 

 from the nuclei. The nuclei of the multitudinous spores are thus 

 the visible signs of those invisible and almost mathematical points 

 of origin where the m3'sterious powers of plasm come into action. 

 In the balancing of the plasm settling to rest, these points, in 

 virtue of their mutually repellent radio-activities,* distribute them^ 

 selves equally throughout the substance ; the spore-walls are then 

 deposited, separating each sphere from those adjacent ; a drying 

 and shrinking process proceeds, by which isolation is completed, 

 and the corporate life of the plasmodium passes into the individual 

 lives of the swarm -spores. 



In summing up the significance of these various phases, we can 

 only conclude that, notwithstanding their singular transforma- 

 tions, the Mycetozoa are among the least complex of living 

 organisms. Perhaps it would be better to say they consist of 

 the simplest living matter. A substance which, m watery con- 

 ditions, so readily coalesces as the swarm-spores do which 

 coheres so long as it remains moist and impure, as in the plas- 

 modium stage, but which, in its purified and balanced condition, 

 falls wholly into spores can only be regarded as having a very 

 feeble organisation indeed. This tendency to break up and 

 recombine, which is the double aspect of that inherent weakness 

 of the plasm, is obviously the orbit in which the principal phases 

 of the Mycetozoa revolve, influenced by v^ariations of environment. 

 This can be fairly affirmed, without forgetting for a moment 

 that many details of the vital processes are at present inexplicable. 



In the realm of physics we are coming to understand that all 

 matter contains large stores of energy locked up in every smallest 

 particle ; but we also learn that some of this imprisoned energy 

 is constantly escaping. In the case of inanimate matter the 

 energy disperses in all directions, and is lost in the universal 

 flux of things ; but with living matter it is not so. The 

 escaping energy of the food-substances absorbed is caught and 

 controlled in the colloidal meshes of the plasm, and the activities 



* The term " radio-activity " is used by the author to denote " activities 

 radiating from centres," and not in the restricted sense as used in physical 

 .science. 



