The Fusion of Individuals 103 



their progeny through many generations. In this way 

 the fusion may be identified as agamic, or gametic, or 

 plasmodial, or as related to some other event concerned 

 in a morphologically known life cycle. 



The possibility suggests itself of building large in- 

 dividuals by transplanting protoplasm, by means of a 

 micropipette, from the body of one individual to the 

 body of another. To one unacquainted with the prop- 

 erties of cellular materials this seems to be a perfectly 

 feasible sort of experiment. In actual fact cytoplasm 

 of egg-cells and other cells with which experiments 

 have been made does not remain liquid when being 

 handled, and any transplanted portion remains dis- 

 crete from the host cytoplasm. It is never incorpor- 

 ated but is finally ejected. 



It is obviously important to know that two vegeta- 

 tive protozoan individuals can fuse or be induced to 

 fuse under some circumstances. The fact gives a prac- 

 tical method by which the size of an individual may be 

 increased without the intervention of growth proces- 

 ses. Thus far no consistent attempt has been made 

 to find how such individuals, either multinucleate or 

 polyploid, regulate their body sizes. It is probable 

 that they exhibit sorts of regulation, with respect to 

 further fission and to liability to death, similar to those 

 exhibited by the fused individuals which have been ob- 

 served under various accidental conditions, as above 

 enumerated. 



The fusion under controlled conditions of unicellular 

 individuals is, on the whole, almost as difficult to ob- 

 tain as the fusion of neighboring cells in multicellular 

 organisms. To investigate the attainment of union 

 among individuals should become all the more im- 

 portant because of this extreme degree of individuality 

 which is ordinarily manifested by them. 





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