412 Prof. Reichert on the Phenomena of Motion 



have to be shown that their production can be imagined only by 

 truly fluid substances, and not by means of semisolid filaments 

 of the nature described by me. 



In vain we seek, in the works of Dujardin, Max Schultze, and 

 other adherents of the sarcode-theory, for any such scientific 

 treatment of the problem before them. The granular move- 

 ment is at once explained as the optical expression of the ebbing 

 and flowing body-substance ; there is no hesitation about infer- 

 ring from the uniting of the filaments into bundles, without lines 

 of separation, that they coalesce ; and when once the notion of 

 the slimy consistence of the sarcode was entertained, the forma- 

 tion of the apparently membranous plates only furnished a fresh 

 proof of the preconceived opinion. The confusion of the observers 

 is so great that it never seems to have been thought worth while 

 to notice the behaviour of the apparently membranous plates 

 during their disappearance, or the movements of the pseudo- 

 podia, and thus to raise the question whether the appearances 

 here seen could be brought into accordance with the view set 

 up. Thus, the plate supposed to be fluid and formed by a fresh 

 accession of body-substance disappears without a trace of re- 

 siduum on the separation of the united filaments ; nay, further, 

 the two crossed filaments are seen to be pushed continually to 

 and fro, still retaining their original form, with as much facility 

 as if there existed no such membrane, i. e. a spot in their course 

 at which the filamentous structure ceases and in its place a fluid 

 plate is introduced. 



On the other hand, in the apparently membranous plates, phe- 

 nomena are observed from which, according to the above state- 

 ments regarding the granular movement, we must necessarily 

 infer the presence of filaments in the plates, and consequently 

 the composition of the latter out of filaments. It is well known 

 that the granular movement is perceptible in the apparently 

 membranous plates. The apparent granules are seen to pass 

 from the proximal end of the filament in more or less curved 

 lines through the plates to the peripheral end of the same fila- 

 ment, or vice versa ; the granule is also seen to run in a straight 

 or curved line from one filament to the other. And it is further 

 observed that, during the separation of the two contiguous fila- 

 ments from the webs which as it were distort them, filaments 

 quite distinctly separate and become free. I remember one case 

 in which a filament even separated from the free margin of the 

 membrane, subsequently presented itself as a branch of one of 

 the filaments, and finally became perfectly free as a third fila- 

 ment. Hence we may, or rather must, conceive that the appa- 

 rently membranous webs and plates are produced in this way : 

 in the pseudopodia, or rather bundles of pseudopodia, which ap- 



