154 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



" 1. The forms of organisms, and of their organs, result en- 

 tirely from life, and simply from the interaction of two phys- 

 iological functions, heredity and adaptation. 



" 2. Heredity is a part of the reproduction ; adaptation, on 

 the other hand, a part of the maintenance of the organism. 

 These two physiological functions depend, as do all forms of 

 vital activity, on the character of the physiological organ 

 through which they come into play. 



" 3. The physiological organs of the organism are either 

 simple plastids (cytods or cells), or they are parts of plastids 

 (e. #., nuclei of cells, cilia of protoplasm), or they are built up 

 of numerous plastids (the majority of organs). 



" In all these cases the forms and actions of the organs are 

 to be traced back to the forms and actions of the individual 

 plastids. 



"4. Plastids are either simple cytods (structureless bits 

 of protoplasm without nuclei) or cells ; but since these last 

 have originally arisen from cytods by a differentiation of the 

 inner 'nucleus' and the outer 'protoplasm,' the forms and 

 vital properties of all plastids can be traced back to the sim- 

 plest cytods as their starting-point. 



" 5. The simplest cytods, from which all other plastids (cy- 

 tods and cells) originally have arisen by heredity and adap- 

 tation, consist essentially and absolutely of nothing more 

 than a bit of structureless protoplasm an albuminoid, nitro- 

 genous carbon compound ; all other components of plastids 

 have been originally formed secondarily from protoplasm 

 (plasma products). 



" G. The simplest independent organisms which we know, 

 and which, moreover, can be conceived, the monera, consist, 

 in fact, while living, of nothing else but the simplest cytod, a 

 structureless bit of protoplasm ; and since they exhibit all 

 forms of vital activity (nutrition, reproduction, irritability, 

 movement), these vital activities are here clearly bound on 

 to structureless protoplasm. 



" V. Protoplasm, or germinal matter (Bildimgsstoff), also 

 called cell substance or primitive slime ( Urschleim), is there- 

 fore the single material basis (materielle Grundlage) to which, 

 without exception and absolutely, all so-called ' vital phe- 

 nomena' are radically bound. If the latter are regarded as 

 the result of a peculiar vital force independent of the proto- 



