THE LIVING SUBSTANCE. 8 1 



Raphidiophrys elegans.) In the two sets of position rhythms 

 it is plain to be seen that, while the substance controls its local 

 state and structure with reference to external environment, 

 this latter cannot be held to be the controlling factor, but only 

 an influencing factor. Besides the above major rhythms, every 

 smallest area of the cytoplasmic and nuclear substance seems to 

 have rhythms of its own of varying viscosity; but the tangled 

 maze of these it is now beyond our power to thread. They bear 

 a constant relation to the phenomena of cell-division and karyo- 

 kinesis, and are visible chiefly as local or strial modifications. 



The production by protoplasm of a homogeneous, or ectosarc- 

 like area, when it is artificially brought into contact with the 

 water, was found to vary greatly, both as to amount and kind 

 of such a formation, according to the time in the above complex 

 set of rhythms in the area experimented on ; and to vary also 

 in the peripheral substance, as such, from the internal substance, 

 as such. 



With regard to experiments made upon living substance 

 crushed from protoplasts, in attempting to confirm, or disprove, 

 experiments upon purely physical foams, it must be borne in 

 mind, that, in the former case, the substance remains for a 

 long time living, and in death disintegrates, so that we can. 

 not too readily assume a rapid formation by it of ectosarcal 

 areas to be due to the same cause as the gradual formation of 

 a hyaline peripheral area by the non-living foam ; basing such 

 conclusion on an optical similarity between the two formations, 

 which is in the main superficial. 



That the formation of ectosarc by the living substance is 

 not a direct physical result of contact with water, is abundantly 

 proved by the fact that, in the same protoplast, from moment 

 to moment, contact with water produces or does not produce 

 ectosarc, excepting always a pellicle. Further there are in 

 many protoplasts and higher Protozoa also, areas of most 

 fluid substance, which on contact with water never form any 

 ectosarc further than a very thin pellicular film. In Amceba 

 proteus and Atnceba radiosa, the ectosarc may be at one time 

 only a film, and then again extend half across the body of the 

 animal. It is frequently, also, formed within already existing 



