6 ANDREWS. 



first to physiological states of the living substance, more within 

 the range of our faculties, and capable of being grouped with, 

 if not interpreted by, phenomena already known to us? 



These questions are not gropings far afield ; they have not 

 till now been asked from the standpoint of the facts gathered 

 here, but these force them upon us in just this form and 

 through them open up new vistas of research. 



[5] Transcending all the difficulties of preservation, was the 

 fact that the protoplasmic structure was found to be in most cases 

 an unstable and often evanescent organization of the elements; 

 and even where a stable structure existed, such as some of 

 those figured for us by Biitschli, this was found to be secondary 

 in importance to swift and subtle substance-changes which it 

 masked. 



Transmutations, transitions, permutations, metamorphoses : 

 — all these, m'' fixed" material can be, at best, but "fixed "states, 

 or appearances, leading to misinterpretation as structural dif- 

 ferences, and as such, possible causes even, whereas, in truth, 

 they are registered effects of causes which forever defy fixation. 



Special training of the automatic, or registering and will-less, 

 attention was devised and found of great use, I believe these 

 more purely animal faculties, when properly used, will give 

 best results in dealing with such swiftly evanescent phenomena 

 as we must learn in protoplasm ; in presence of which a more 

 direct exercise of attention by the will is elliptical, confused, 

 misled, or baffled utterly. 



Camera drawing of the finest structure and phenomena I 

 found impossible. Of the living substance-phenomena, it is 

 about as practicable as it would be to trace upon a wall reflec- 

 tions thrown there from disturbed water. Some camera draw- 

 ings of the filose phenomena in starfish and echinus eggs were 

 made, but such can show by direct tracing larger masses only 

 of the substance, and are in point of time-relation true but to 

 a limited extent. It follows from the very nature of these 

 phenomena, as will be seen, that they cannot be traced. For 

 while the hand follows one minutest portion, the relations of 

 the whole will have undergone change, with important trans- 

 positions and transmutations of both structure and substance. 



