III.] LIFE AND DEATH, II9 



parts ^ during the division of the animal. It is evident that 

 the equal division of the whole nuclear substance only becomes 

 possible in this w^ay. 



There are, however, numerous cases which prove that the 

 bodies of encysted animals may retain, during the whole 

 process, exactly the same structure and differentiation, which 

 were previously characteristic of them. Thus the large In- 

 fusorian Tillina magna, described by Gruber, can be seen 

 through the thin-walled cyst to retain the characteristic struc- 

 ture of its ectoplasm, and the whole of its organization. Even 

 the movements of the enclosed animal do not cease ; it con- 

 tinues to rotate actively in the narrow cyst, as do the two or 

 four parts into which it subsequently divides. Such ob- 

 servations prove that Gotte's view that ' every characteristic of 

 the previous organization is lost,' is quite out of the question ^ 

 (1. c, p. 62). 



For this reason I must strongly oppose Gotte's view that 

 an encysted individual is a germ, viz. an organic mass still 

 unorganized which can only become an adult individual by 

 means of a process of development. I believe that an encysted 

 individual is one possessing a protective membrane, in struc- 

 ture more or less simplified as an adaptation to the narrow space 

 within the cyst, and to a possible subsequent increase by 

 division, in short one in which active life is reduced to a mini- 

 mum, and sometimes even completely in abeyance, as happens 

 when it is frozen. 



It is evident from the above considerations that encystment 

 in no way corresponds with that which every one, including 

 myself, understands by death, because during encystment 

 one and the same being is first apparently dead and then again 

 alive ; and we merely witness a condition of rest, from which 

 active life will again emerge. This would remain true even 

 if it were proved that life is, in reality, suspended for a time. 

 But such proof is still wanting, and Gotte was apparently only 



^ Upon this point Professor Gruber intends to publish an elaborate 

 memoir. 



- This view has not even been proved for Acti)iosphacnHui, upon 

 which Gotte chiefly relies. The observations which we now possess 

 merely indicate that the animal contracts to the smallest volume possible. 

 Compare F. E. Schuize, ' Rhizopodcnstudien,' I, Arch. f. mikr. Anat. Bd. 

 10, p. 328 ; and Karl Brandt, ' Ueber Actinosphaerium Eichhornii.' Inaug. 

 Diss. ; Halle, 1877. 



