92 THE PSYCHIC LIFE 



Each of these elements plays a part of special im- 

 portance in the vital phenomena of these beings. 

 Long since, scientists have attributed movement, 

 sensibility, and the prehension of foods, to the proto- 

 plasm. This was the result of direct observation. While 

 observing an Amoeba, for example, the protoplasm is 

 seen to undergo modifications of form and to throw 

 out pseudopods, either for the purpose of effecting a 

 change of position, or to seize alimentary substances. 

 The protoplasm, accordingly, seems to be the sole 

 agent of all these phenomena. Likewise, the vibratile 

 cilia of the Ciliates, which are at once organs of mo- 

 tion, prehension, and touch; the suckers of the Acin- 

 etinidae, which are special organs of prehension, are 

 nothing else than outward expansions of the proto- 

 plasm proper. 



As regards the enveloping membrane, the same 

 cannot discharge any psychical function: firstly, be- 

 cause it is a product of protoplasmic secretion; and, 

 secondly, because it is wanting in many Protozoans 

 and even in many animalcula quite high in point of 

 organization that, despite their nudity, exhibit marks 

 of psychic life just as complex as those observed in 

 Infusoria having a cuticle. The part acted by the nu- 

 cleus does not so clearly manifest itself to direct ob- 

 servation; it executes no movements in the ordinary 

 conditions of life; it remains motionless in the centre 

 of the animal's body, surrounded on all sides by the 

 protoplasm; unlike the latter, it is not in direct con- 

 tact with the outside world. 



The first phenomena that have enabled us to con- 

 jecture as to the significance of the nucleus, have to do 

 with the division of cellules; when a cellule divides, 

 the nucleus comes into action, it exhibits certain 



