THE STRUCTURAL BASIS OF THE BODY 



19 



' hyaloplasm.' A network is, however, one of the commonest pseudo- 

 structures produced in the coagulation of an albuminous fluid by 

 any means whatever, and it is probable that in most cases the 

 network which is seen in hardened cells is simply an artefact. Some- 

 times a large portion of the protoplasm may take a fibrillar form which 

 can be detected even in the unstained and unfixed cell, and there 



FIG. 4. Section of liver stained to show granules. 



is no doubt that, in certain phases at any rate, the fibrillar structure 

 of the protoplasm is really present. 



3. THE ALVEOLAR THEORY OF BUTSCHLI. This theory may 

 be looked upon as corresponding morphologically to the granular 

 theory of Altmann. If we imagine a hyaline protoplasm which is 

 continually manufacturing metaplasrnic products and storing them 

 up in its protoplasm, these products will be deposited as spherules 

 gradually increasing in size, so that the protoplasm between them 

 will be converted into alveolar partitions between the droplets. In 

 many an egg cell, where there is a growth of protoplasm from this 

 building up of food into reserve materials, the development of such 

 an alveolar structure can be followed in the living protoplasm, and 

 such cells when mature show a marked alveolar structure whether 

 examined fresh or in the hardened and stained condition. Such a 

 protoplasm would be practically an emulsion of one fluid in another, 

 and according to Biitschli artificial emulsions, made by mixing rancid 

 oil with sodium carbonate solutions, may show under the microscope 

 a very close resemblance to cell protoplasm (Fig. 6), and may even 

 exhibit amoeboid changes of form in consequence of the diffusion 

 currents set up at the surface of the drop between its contents and the 

 surrounding water. Most histologists are in accord that none of the 



