288 Phillips on a Comparative Study of the 
tral body only, which often showed clear ends. Fischer 
suggested that this central body was merely a plasmolized 
protoplast, and that there really was no central body or 
nucleus to be seen in the bacteria. 
If we are to accept the doctrine of evolution as a working 
hypothesis, these so-called “non-nucleated” organisms prob- 
ably represent the progenitors of the higher plants, or a line 
of degeneration from them, or their nuclei, on account of 
the evident differences between them and the nuclei of other 
plants, may be the carrying out of a different line of devel- 
opment, though still developing a structure which fulfills the 
functions of a nucleus. Whichever case it should be, makes 
very little difference in our present argument. If, as has 
been largely accepted hitherto, these plants have no nuclei 
and still exhibit hereditary traits, it would seem to negative 
the whole theory of heredity as explained by mitotic division. 
One can hardly believe that the hereditary material would be 
placed in one structure in the higher plants and in another 
in the lower, and still be carrying out a line of gradual 
development, even though evolved along different lines of 
developmental history. In all other organs, homologies are 
carried out, and we should expect that if the hereditary 
material is located in the chromatin in higher plants, it is 
likely to be found in a similar substance in the lower ones. 
Accepting the doctrine of gradual development, to what are 
we to look for the antecedents of the nucleus? It is not 
probable that it came into existence with all of its mitotic 
steps, suddenly and de novo. All modern biological 
research would oppose such a conception. It would seem, 
then, that we must look for the beginnings of the nucleus 
in these forms which we have denominated the “non-nucle- 
ated” organisms, though, of course, through all the time 
passed since they first came into existence, modifications 
most likely have occurred and we would scarcely expect to 
find them just as they were in their early history. 
In the higher plants the nucleus is looked upon as the 
