312 



ORGANISATION IN SPACE AND TIME 



ture but that neither has it any invisible solid structure made 

 up of ' beams and braces '. 



The further such studies proceed the clearer it becomes 

 that living, active protoplasm exists in the liquid state. It 

 is true that parts of it, both internal and external, may at a 

 certain period of life become rigid, when the phenomenon 

 described by Frey-Wissling is reversed. 



Fig. 28. Protoplasm flowing out from the cut cells of 



an alga. 



However, it is not in these rigid formations that we should 

 look for the key to the structure of the substrate of life. In 

 most cases they play only a secondary part and the general 

 gelatinisation of protoplasm only occurs when the vital 

 processes are diminished, during anabiosis. The essential 

 organisation of active protoplasm is associated with the liquid 

 state. 



What has been said applies equally to the cytoplasm and 

 the nucleus of the cell, and also to a number of formed 

 elements in the protoplasm, but especially to the mesoplasm 

 of plant cells. *^ Nevertheless, if the cell membrane is broken 

 and the mesoplasm flows out into the surrounding aqueous 

 medium (Fig. 28), it does not mix with the water but disperses 

 to form a multitude of sharply demarcated droplets which 

 look verv like droplets of artificial coacervates but have a 



