114 STUDIES IN ELECTRO-PHYSIOLOGY: 



of temperature has much the same effect upon enzymes 

 as it has upon the velocity of the nerve impulse, they die 

 at much the same temperature as protoplasm, and their 

 activity is checked or destroyed by many of the chemical 

 substances, such as strong acids and alkalis which check 

 or destroy amoebic movement. This proves nothing, but 

 it opens the door to the suggestion that enzyme action, 

 instead of being wholly chemical, may be in some measure 

 electrical. 



The best description of cell-division in plants is given 

 by Professor Vines in his Text-book of Botany. He says : 

 " The indirect division of the nucleus presents a series of 

 remarkable phenomena which are collectively designated 

 by the term karyokinesis. Beginning with the nucleus in 

 the resting-state, the first fact indicating the imminence of 

 nuclear division is that the two centrospheres " (centro- 

 somes) " separate and take up positions on opposite 

 sides of the nucleus, thus indicating the plane in which the 

 nuclear division is to take place, viz., at right angles to a 

 straight line joining the centrospheres : the change of 

 position of the centrospheres is doubtless effected by the 

 kinoplasm in which they lie. Changes are now perceptible 

 in the nucleus itself. The fibrillar network contracts and 

 becomes more dense, and breaks into distinct fibrils (chromo- 

 somes) consisting now of broad discs of chromatin with 

 narrower intervening discs of linin ; the tangle of the 

 somewhat V-shaped fibrils becomes looser as they separate 

 and move towards the surface of the nucleus. At this stage 

 the so-called nuclear membrane loses its definiteness, the 

 kinoplasm entering the nucleus without, however, dis- 

 placing the proper ground-substance of the nucleus. The 

 kinoplasm forms a number of threads, extending from one 

 centrosphere to the other, constituting the kinoplasmic 

 spindle " (achromatic spindle), " of which the centrospheres 

 are the two poles. Along these threads the fibrils move 



