STRUCTURE OF BACTERIA 119 



according to him nothing else than the protoplasm which 

 has remained sticking to certain points of the cell wall after 

 plasmolytic contraction of the contents, and has become 

 drawn out into threads or rays. It is therefore also im- 

 possible to speak of a special central body or nucleus in 

 these organisms, and that which I regard as such is nothing 

 else whatever but the central mass of the contracted cell 

 protoplasm. 



Whoever reads the interpretation put upon my observa- 

 tions, an interpretation which makes my qualifications for 

 investigating such objects appear in rather a dubious light, 

 might perhaps arrive at the obvious supposition that Fischer 

 in his studies on the plasmolysis of the contents of the 

 bacterial cell had observed the occurrence of some such 

 process as he declares to be the source of my errors. It is, 

 however, to be sought in vain. He has observed nothing 

 more than the contraction of the contents of the cell under 

 the action of certain solutions ; in his pictures we look in 

 vain for any trace of structural relations. The whole of his 

 interpretation of the appearances described by me is therefore 

 hypothetical, and is only based upon the experience that in the 

 plasmolysis of " ordinary plant cells " single threads of proto- 

 plasm " not at all infrequently " remain sticking to the wall 

 of the cell, and according to Fischer are continued into the 

 pores of the cell wall. So far as I am aware, this phenomenon 

 is by no means of common occurrence in the plasmolysis. of 

 " ordinary plant cells," but is the exception. As a rule, 

 the contents contract on all sides without any such formation 

 of threads, and whenever they occur, they make their 

 appearance for the most part very irregularly here and 

 there. 



If it thus appears, from what has gone before, quite inadmis- 

 sible and absurd to try to refer the radiate alveolar layer of 

 protoplasm, observed by me quite regularly both in the large 

 Bacteria and in Oscillarice, to a phenomenon of such abnormal 

 occurrence in the cells of higher plants, this is shown still further 

 by a series of other facts. Fischer asserts, as has been said, that 

 all the conditions described by me are deceptive appearances 

 resulting from cells altered by plasmolysis, and supports his cori- 



