28 SCIENCE PROGRESS. 



Strasburger (3) has attempted to define more clearly the 

 position of the individual energid, by proposing to limit its 

 application to the nucleus together with a special part of the 

 cytoplasm which he calls Kinoplasm and which he regards 

 as the proximate seat of the effective manifestation of the 

 forces at work in the cell. He regards the nomadic 

 streaming protoplasm as being mainly charged with the 

 function of providing nourishment for the nucleus and 

 kinoplasm, and he distinguishes it by the special term of 

 Trophoplasm. Strasburger maintains this same distinction 

 between the active Kinoplasm and the nutritive tropho- 

 plasm in those cases in which the limits of the several 

 energids correspond with those of the individual cells ; 

 and in this he is logical enough, for we know that living 

 cells are not isolated from each other, but that protoplasmic 

 continuity exists between adjacent cells by means of pores 

 in the intervening walls. How far the distinction between 

 kinoplasm and trophoplasm is either justified by observa- 

 tion or demanded by theory is another matter altogether. 



But although the conception of energids is a happy one, 

 as enabling us to distinguish discrete individualities in what 

 may at first sight appear to consist of a common structure, 

 it is not to be inferred that the individuals enjoy independ- 

 ence. The great merit of the idea lies in the fact that it 

 serves to narrow down, and hence to render more clearly 

 comprehensible, many important problems which call for a 

 solution before we can hope to grapple successfully with 

 the more advanced questions relating to those forces of a 

 still higher order which control and apparently direct the 

 development of the organism as a whole, or to put it in 

 another way, which determine the course of development 

 which the particular energids shall follow. Such control is 

 plainly apparent at every stage in the life of an organism. 

 Why does growth take place symmetrically so that the 

 energids, cells, or whatever we may choose to call them, so 

 act in unison as to produce a " body fitly joined together 

 and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, accord- 

 ing to the effectual working in the measure of every 

 part " ? Without some such assumption how is it 



