FIRST LECTURE. 



THE STRUCTURE OF PROTOPLASM.^ 



EDMUND B. WILSON. 



It would be superfluous to dwell in this place on the deep 

 and enduring interest that attaches to the microscopical study 

 of protoplasm. Since the time when the studies of Cohn and 

 Schultze led to the general recognition of protoplasm as the 

 material substratum of vital activity, — a conclusion so elo- 

 quently set forth by Huxley in his celebrated essay on the 

 physical basis of life, — this interest has continually increased, 

 as we have come to see even more clearly that all biological 

 phenomena are directly or indirectly traceable to the effects of 

 protoplasmic activity, for we have thus been impelled to seek 

 for an understanding of that activity in the morphological struc- 

 ture of protoplasm, as revealed by the microscope. It is small 

 wonder that to this quest some of the ablest of modern biolo- 

 gists have devoted their best energies. And yet, if we take 

 account of the actual knowledge gained, we cannot repress 

 a certain sense of disappointment, partly that microscopical 

 research should have fallen so far short of giving the insight 

 for which we had hoped, but still more because of the failure 

 of the best observers to reach any unanimity in the interpreta- 

 tion of what is actually visible under the microscope. In any 

 consideration of the general subject, therefore, it is well to keep 

 clearly in view the fact that such disagreement exists, and that 



1 A more adequately illustrated special paper on this subject, containing more 

 specific references to the literature, is now in press. It should be borne in mind 

 that such delicate textures as those seen in the protoplasm of living cells cannot 

 be properly illustrated by black and white figures. The accompanying text figures, 

 though copied as* accurately as possible from the original drawings, are of necessity 

 relatively rude and schematic. 



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