38 Vitality and Organization of Protoplasm. 



tion advanced on the strength of my observations of the vital manifesta- 

 >^ tions of Protozoa, have been lately confirmed bj Morgan as an in- 

 leyitable conclusion from manifold, most instructive results yielded by 

 (experimental regeneration and experimental ontogeny. Morgan asserts 

 that "there can not be much doubt that both the polarity and the bi- 

 laterality of the egg or of a piece of the egg, belong fundamentally to 

 the same class of phenomena, and we are forced to the supposition that 

 they are inherent peculiarities of the living substance." "Kegenera- 

 tion," p. 248. 



I may add that the interpretation of .vital phenomena here given and 

 found to result from the cumulative reintegration of the living substance 

 as a whole, necessarily following its normal or abnormal disintegration; 

 I that this interpretation yields, as will be shown in the section on organi- 

 zation, the master key to the unlocking of the otherwise impenetrable 

 phenomena of ontogeny, regeneration, and organic shaping in general. 



Protoplasm is a collective name, and not a substance of definite 

 chemical composition, such as other analyzable organic substances. As 

 living substance it is by no means, as sometimes supposed, of the same 

 chemical constitution in different protoplasmic beings. On the con- 

 trary, it is precisely the difference of chemical constitution which under- 

 lies the multifold and profound differences of such beings^ structurally 

 and functionally. The difference of, chemical constitution evinces itself 

 morphologically in the definite configuration which each of the numer- 

 ous kinds of protoplasmic beings assumes; 'and functionally in the more 

 or less rapid reintegration of the functionally deteriorated substance. 

 The higher the chemical constitution, the quicker the functional restitu- 

 tion. 



With regard to ama-boid beings, close observation and comparison of 

 many kinds, reveals that the alternate expansion and contraction of their 

 pseudopodia is not merely a casually induced phenomenon, nor merely 

 a means of moving and seizing nutritive material ; but that it constitutes 

 the most essential and central manifestation of their vitality. An ex- 

 panding, explosive substance is thereby offered to the stimulating in- 

 fluences of the medium, resulting in more or less profound disintegra- 

 tion by its clash with the same, whereupon the intrinsic restitutive 

 forces gain the ascendancy, and a renewed wave of expansion beats 

 against the functionally disintegrating influences. Tn sundry ways, 

 with slower or quicker pulsations, all forms of amoeboid beings display 

 in ever reiterated sequence the same see-saw motion of alternate ex- 

 pansion and retraction. There are amceboid beings, such as the.Helio- 

 zoa, that push out long and slender pseudopodia, Avhich quickly stagnate 

 through and through, whilst others, such as reticulate Ehizopods, push 

 out just as long and slender pseudo]wdia, that appear, on the contrary, 

 vividly active by means of the rapid play of reintegrating and disinte- 

 grating pulses, aided by the coalescence of joining pseudopodia. There 

 are again amoeba which push out irregularly shaped, lobular ]iseudQpodia, 

 consisting mostly of hyaline pul)stauce. wliilst others ]nisli out long, 



