254 
Rhizopods, which appears to be identical with the protoplasm 
of cells, differs from the protoplasm of the Monera and 
Cytods generally, in that the chemical elements of the nu- 
cleolus and of the nucleus diffused uniformly throughout the 
entire substance of the body of these latter, occurs in the cel- 
lular beings separated into distinet organs, the nucleolus and 
nucleus. 
The protoplasm of the Monera, from the chemical and 
physiological point of view,*represents the protoplasm of 
cells plus the nuclei and the nucleoli. The two substances 
being different in spite of the identity of their physical cha- 
racters, and the apparent similitude of their physiological 
properties, there is ground for distinguishing them, and to 
distinguish them efficiently it is desirable to designate them 
under different names. Haeckel has remarked, with reason,}! 
that the word “ protoplasm ” signifies not formative substance, 
but much more formed substance (ro wAacpa). The word 
plasson (ro 7Aaccov) would serve better to designate the ma- 
terial which is par excellence formative, that which consti- 
tutes those living beings devoid of organization—the monera 
and the cytods. I propose the introduction of this word 
plasson into the scientific vocabulary, to designate the sub- 
stance of cytods, which is capable of becoming, either in 
ontogenetic course or in phylogenetic course, mono-cellular 
elements after that the chemical elements of the plasson 
have been separated to constitute a nucleolus, a nucleus, and 
a protoplasmic body, and to preserve the word protoplasm to 
designate the substance of the body of a cell. 
Protoplasm is really relatively to plasson a formed material, 
which has undergone a first differentiation by the formation 
of the nucleus and nucleolus. The plasson, on the contrary, 
is the formative substance par excellence, at the expense of 
which have been formed in due phylogenetic order all living 
beings. 
Plasson differs from the “ germinal matter” of Beale, in 
that Beale gives this name to the living elements of the cell, 
whether the nucleus be differentiated or not. Plasson cannot 
exist in a cell; it ceases to exist from the moment when the 
cellular element has become characterised as such; it is then 
broken up into protoplasm, nucleus, and nucleolus. Plasson 
and protoplasm present the same physical characters; they 
can both manifest the phenomena called “ vital.” 
The existence of the Monera and of cytods demonstrates 
that life is connected with the existence of a determinate 
chemical composition, much more than to a form; and the 
? Generelle Morphologie,’ vol. i, p. 276. 
