90 PROTISTS AND DISEASE 



The synchytrian nucleolus is composed of living matter 

 with the least recognisable differentiation of structure and 

 of the greatest potential ; all cell-organs being formable by 

 it ; it is totipotential protoplasm ; plasson. 



An instance is given in the next Chapter of a whole 

 synchytrian nucleolus expanding on all sides simultaneously 

 into a spreading mass, which infiltrates the cytoplasm. In 

 that and other similar cases the nucleolar expansion appears 

 to have replaced a primary and several subsequent mitoses, 

 smaller nuclei being formed from the expansion as bird's-eye 

 bodies. 



In the direct sporangium of 8. endobioticum expansion 

 occurred by a series of what may be regarded as unipolar 

 mitoses ; in that of the thistle- Synchytrium by a gradual 

 and continuous expansion from the surface of the nucleolus. 



To the original unexpanded form of plasson as seen in 

 the nucleolus the adjective pycno (Gr. = dense) may be 

 applied, the expanded state as seen in Fig. 23, d, being 

 designated chasmatoplasson (Gr. chasma an expanse). 



If we imagine a degree of parasitism even more intimate 

 than is to be found in Synchytrium, we should expect to 

 find the parasites reduced in some stages of their existence 

 to the condition of the synchytrian nucleolus. In Chapters 

 VI and X it is shown that the causal parasites of molluscum 

 contagiosum, smallpox, syphilis, and cancer are reduced to 

 this state in their earlier stages. 



