86 PROTOPLASM OF PROTOZOA 



Multilation studies by Calkins (1911) and by Peebles (1912) on 

 Paramecium have resulted in the production of numerous monsters, 

 Peebles describes this condition as due to an upset in nuclear and cyto- 

 plasmic division tempo; thus when the nucleus is ready to divide, the 

 cytoplasm is not, and vice versa. If this be true, the mitotic and cyto- 

 kinetic phenomena in this form must be closely integrated, and the 

 division mechanism of the organism as a whole be dependent upon the 

 proper coordination of both the nuclear and the cytoplasmic division 

 processes. 



Child and Deviney (1926) and Child (1934), have shown that in 

 ciliates generally there is an anteroposterior gradient, due to the existence 

 of a physiological gradient in the longitudinal axis. The anterior end is 

 more susceptible to many agents, and there is also an axial differential 

 in the rate of reduction of methylene blue. Child is of the opinion that 

 this metabolic gradient is the only basis of physiological polarity. Lund 

 (1917, 1921) has found that reversal of polarity often occurs in cut 

 halves of Bursar ia undergoing regeneration; it may also occur in normal 

 animals. An indication of this change in polarity was a reversed beat of 

 the cilia. He further found that Paramecium showed a reversed beat of 

 cilia, in direct electrical currents of proper strength. Verworn (1899) 

 has shown that paramecia and other ciliates orient themselves with the 

 anterior end of their bodies toward the cathode to which they swim. 

 On the other hand, many flagellates show an opposite behavior. 



Schaeffer (1931) has presented evidence that the protoplasm of the 

 amoebae, and presumably of other organisms, consists primarily of spe- 

 cific molecules which are organized into definite patterns, and that most 

 or all of the characteristics of the organisms are due to or correlated 

 with positional relationships of the molecules. 



It is generally thought at the present time that adjacent protein mole- 

 cules, because of their multipolar character, have an orienting efi^ect 

 upon one another and that the resulting configuration may be equivalent 

 to a net-like structure, extended in three dimensions. That this is true 

 may be inferred from the anomalous viscosity of solutions of proteins 

 and protoplasm: they show non-Newtonian flow, i.e., their viscosity 

 varies with the stress applied, although they may outwardly conform to 

 true fluids in being free from rigidity. 



Bensley (1938) has recently isolated from the cytoplasm of liver 



