Spores, with a Spore Glossary. 263 



would seem to warrant such an expression. Dilation and con- 

 traction, we say, explain these movements, and the stimulus 

 is supplied by the fluid in which they are suddenly cast. But 

 other fibers do not, under similar circumstances, contract and 

 expand in this way. We think there is a little brain work here, 

 and that we have the beginning of a nerve. The force that was 

 sealed up, and has traversed water or air for an indefinite 

 length of time, falls at last upon suitable soil, and we have the 

 beginning of one of Lionel Beale's " bioblasts " — " a minute mass 

 of clear, transparent, structureless, living matter, possessing forma- 

 tive power of the most remarkable kind." 



But in that "clear, transparent, structureless mass," furnishing 

 the motive power, is a minute, organized structure — a nerve-cell — 

 so small that with our best microscope we cannot, in all cases, see 

 it. It may be a form of nerve-cell different from those we already 

 know. I think Beale recognizes this as a fact when he says : 

 " There is a great difference between the bacterium and the 

 minute germ particle from which it springs. This little body is 

 often less than the ^^^^^^^^^ of an inch in diameter, and there are 

 probably few living things in existence which will retain their 

 vitality for so long a period, under such very different adverse 

 circumstances. * * * These germ particles, each one probably 

 protected by an envelope, may remain dormant, passive, and 

 undergo but little change, for a great length of time. Such particles 

 exist everywhere, and retain their life under conditions which 

 would not only infallibly destroy the growing, multiplying bacteria, 

 but every other living organism knowm to us." 



We should recognize this fact, then, that there is, and should 

 always be understood, a difference between the germ-cell or spore, 

 and the cells or propagations that it originates. 



This difference has been well demonstated by the patient 

 experiments of Dallinger, Drysdale, Pasteur, Tyndall, etc., and yet 

 some writers on the subject evince ignorance of this matter, 

 apparently so well established as a fact. Confusion has arisen 

 from our having failed to distinguish between the growing organism 

 and its seed or spore. 



Similarity of form and structure in some bodies may have but 

 little significance. It may not indicate similarity of function 

 and use. But the similarity of the nerve-cells and zoospores, 

 especially in the beginnings or simplest stages of developement, is 

 very striking. 



