2io MO VEMENTS OF LI VI NG MA TTER. 



movement in all directions, and contractile property which 

 permits shortening only* 



The movements in the mucus corpuscle and in the 

 amoeba are of the same nature as those which occur in the 

 bioplasm of many plants, as is easily observed in the cells 

 of the leaves of the vallisneria, or the anacharis, in the 

 stems of chara, in the hairs of the leaf of the stinging 

 nettle, and in the purple hair-like processes of the flower of 

 Tradescantia. The appearance of the living matter under 

 very high powers is precisely the same in all cases, as I 

 pointed out in my lectures before and since 1860. I 

 demonstrated similar movements in pus, and they occur in 

 cancer, and probably in every kind of living matter in 

 health and in disease. (PL III, figs. 7 and 8.) In some 

 instances the movements of the pus corpuscle continue for 

 many hours after the living matter has been removed from 

 the surface upon which it grew. In other cases, and we 

 shall not be surprised that this should be so in some forms 

 of bioplasm of the higher animals, death occurs the instant 

 the conditions under which the living matter exists are but 

 slightly modified. In those instances in which no move- 

 ments can be seen, the evidence of their occurrence is 

 almost as decided as if they were visible, for certain results 

 are discerned which can only be explained by the occur- 

 rence of such movements as have been referred to. The 

 movements in question affecting the bioplasm occur in every 

 form of living matter. The relative position of the particles 

 of bioplasm (bioplasts) in all tissues is such as to render it 

 certain that the latter could only have taken the places 



. * See my paper "On Contractility as distinguished from purely 

 vital movements. ""Trans. Mic. Soc.," 1866. 



