THE BIOLOGY OF THE CELL SURFACE 



In the second place, the fact that abnormal mitoses 

 arise in response to most diverse means needs to be con- 

 sidered. The Nereis egg which portrays them as an effect 

 of radiations, responds in like manner to other means. ^ 

 Then the reaction is an expression of independent irritability 

 which reveals specific structure. So with somatic cells 

 which react similarly. Thus, abnormal mitosis does not 

 as such mean that the cell is one of cancer. Moreover, 

 not every human cancer cell displays abnormal mitosis. 



None the less is the resemblance striking. Far removed 

 though any cell — egg of worm or cell of an onion root tip — 

 is from a human cell of cancer, it might not be too far fetched 

 to see in the similarity of response a manifestation of a 

 fundamental structure common to all protoplasmic systems. 

 It is as imperative for the problem of cancer as for any 

 problem in biology discussed in this book that we add to 

 our knowledge of this structure. 



The fact that the egg of a worm and a human cell show 

 comparable configuration in abnormal condition points to 

 a similarity in a basic pattern of organization in living mat- 

 ter upon which the characters of speciation are imposed. 

 If therefore we could designate in the egg one characteristic 

 deformation as diagnostic of its response to changes in the 

 external medium, we should have at hand a point of depar- 

 ture for study of the cancer cell. Now such diagnostic is, 

 as I shall show, available: All means that elicit the rise of 

 abnormal mitosis do so through alteration of the ectoplasm. 

 A more exact cytology of human cancer cells with reference 

 to ectoplasmic behavior is thus indicated. 



The effect of the radiation on the ectoplasm of the egg 

 of Nereis is shown in the following ways. First, the normal 

 egg after fertilization extrudes a jelly throughout the whole 

 ectoplasm so that every fertilized egg is enclosed in a hull 



1 Just, 1936c. 



346 



