A CRITICISM OF THE CELL-THEORY. Lis 
essentially similar process, a continuous sheet of protoplasm 
containing many nuclei is formed as a tissue-constituent of a 
multicellular animal or plant, we do not call the whole multi- 
nuclear tract a single cell—we call it a syncytium, or take 
some roundabout way of describing it. Such a case is the 
formation of the endosperm in the embryo-sac of Phanero- 
gams. By repeated mitotic division of the nucleus and growth 
of the surrounding cytoplasm, a tract of continuous proto- 
plasm is formed, containing many nuclei. At a later stage 
partitions are formed and the mass is divided up into cells, but 
for a period the endosperm has a structure which recalls that 
of the Coeloblaste. Can we say that the condition in the 
endosperm is to be regarded as multicellular because it is not 
permanent, and that the condition in the Ceeloblastz is to be 
regarded as unicellular because it is permanent? If this is 
allowed the consequences are far-reaching, for it follows that 
the multinuclear phase in Actinospherium and other Protozoa 
is also multicellular, because not permanent. 
Take, again, the case of the Mycetozoa. The plasmodium of 
Badhamia or Fuligo is not unicellular, for it is formed by the 
union of many cells: it is not called multicellular, because 
there are no cell divisions: yet we draw, rightly enough, a 
distinction between the plasmodium, where cell bodies fuse but 
the nuclei do not unite, and the single cell resulting from con- 
jugation, where the nuclei do unite, 
A survey of the facts must lead to the conclusion that there 
is an intermediate phase between the unicellular and the multi- 
cellular condition, which is the multinucleate but non-cellular 
condition,! and that there is no fundamental distinction 
1 The term non-cellular does not exactly represent the condition which it 
is intended to describe. Yet, if one adheres to existing nomenclature, it is 
difficult to find a substitute. The term “cell,” though founded on an 
erroneous conception, is so firmly established in biological language that it 
would probably be impossible to eject it. Yet if one were to make general 
use of the Greek equivalent xdri¢ (literally a little box), which has already 
come into such favour as to have respectable claims on our attention, one 
might adopt much more exact expressions. Thus the uninucleate Protozoa 
might be said to exhibit a monocytial condition, multicellular organisms a 
