120 THE MICROSCOPIST. 



their way through natural pores or chance fissures and 

 protrude, as in the figures. 



3. The peculiar phenomena of living cells or bioplasms 

 may be classified as follows: Active or spontaneous move- 

 ment, nutrition and growth, arid the power of reproduc- 

 tion. These vital actions, according to Dr. Beale, occur 

 in the bioplasm only, while the formed material, or non- 

 living matter, is the seat of physical and chemical changes 

 exclusively. Physical processes, as diffusion and osmose, 

 occur in bioplasmic particles, but the peculiar phenomena 

 referred to, and which are properly termed vital, do not 

 occur in non-living matter. 



Movements of Cells. Granules imbedded in the bioplasm, 

 either formed material or accidental products, enable our 

 microscopes to observe internal movement, while change 

 of form and of place exhibit the movement of the entire 

 cell. 



The granular movement is either vibratory or continu- 

 ous. The vibrations of the granules appear similar to the 

 molecular movement described by Dr. Robert Brown in 

 1827, and which is common to all small masses of matter, 

 organic or inorganic. Minute cells may thus dance in 

 fluid as well as fine powders, etc. Such movements occur, 

 however, in the interior of living cells, and may possibly 

 be connected with vitality. In the salivary corpuscles, 

 the dancing motion ceases on the addition of a solution 

 of one-half to one per cent, -of common salt, while such 

 addition has no influence of the kind on fresh pus or 

 lymph. 



The continuous granular motion is either a relatively 

 slow progression, corresponding to the change of form in 

 the cell, or a swifter flowing movement. Max Schultze 

 thus describes this motion in the threads of sarcode pro- 

 jected from the apertures of a Foraminiferal shell : " As 

 the passengers in a broad street swarm together, so do 

 the granules in one of the broader threads make their 



