Relation of Inorganic to Organic Bodies 61 



life history, they pass into a dormant or resting period. During 

 this time they persist in a state of "dormant life" or reduced 

 vitality, or as Preyer expressed it "anabiosis." 



This state may persist for a few days, months, years, or 

 even decades. As a preliminary to this the protoplasm grad- 

 ually parts with a large amount of its water, and becomes con- 

 densed in the process into the state essentially of a hydrogel 

 solution. Then, the nuclear chromatin being — as we hope to 

 show later — in a dormant and inert state, the protoplasm 

 exhibits those characters above summarized for the Acaryota. 



Such is typical for many spores and bud cells as well as 

 seeds of plants; for the mature plants of many lichens and 

 some fungi; of some mosses, ferns, selaginellas, and even flower- 

 ing plants; for some corms, bulbs, tubers, aerial stems, and 

 woody cuttings of flowering plants; for dessicated infusors 

 and rotifers; for hibernating fishes, amphibians, reptiles, and 

 mammals; and more rarely or to a limited degree for various 

 animal eggs. 



We by no means desire to assert here that the protoplasm 

 and all of its accessory suhsiances are in all or in any one group 

 of the above, absolutely identical T\dth that of other groups. 

 But we do claim that the fundamental substance or admixture 

 that we call protoplasm, and which shows certain fundamental 

 similar staining and other peculiarities, undergoes a temporary 

 physical or physico-chemical change, that makes it more nearly 

 resemble that of the ancestral Acaryota. 



Instances of such protoplasmic resistance are given in many 

 of the well-known works that deal with plant and animal life; 

 while the writer refers to some of these in a pa])er already 

 noted {13: 9.^5). Now it can quite accurately be claimed that 

 what is the condition or characteristic of any plant or animal 

 at any one phase of its history might well have been its normal 

 condition in its past genealogical history. So it need not sur- 

 prise us if the Caryota, at any stage in their evolution, or in 

 their individual life cycle, show features which carry us back 

 to the Acaryota, as being ancestral forms. 



The conclusion can warrantably be reached, then, that at 

 the basis of all plant and animal cells there exists a funda- 



