138 Traces 0/~ Unity in 



the surface of the earth is not that of zero, but that" of a 

 charge which is the seat of regular tidal movements cor- 

 responding to those which tell upon the barometer, and 

 of incessant, irregular oscillations or wave-like movements. 

 The bodies in which amaeboid movement are manifested, 

 as I have shewn by several experiments with Thom- 

 son's new quadrant electrometer, are in the same case 



-electrically as water, or sculptor's clay, or. any other 

 inorganic substance : and, this being the case, it is 



-supposable, not only that the charge will cause expan- 

 sion in the charged bodies by keeping their molecules 

 in a state of mutual repulsion, but also that the ever- 

 varying changes in the charge will tell in corresponding 

 changes of expansion. And this too is supposable, that 



the action of the charge in causing expansion will tell 

 more in some bodies than in others, and more in some 

 parts of these bodies than in others more in bodies, 

 and in parts of these bodies, which are less solid than 

 in those which are more so, and, perhaps, only perceptibly 

 in the bodies, or in the parts of these bodies, which are 

 fluid rather than solid. Hence it may be that the 

 changes in expansion consequent upon changes in the 

 amount of charge may be perceptible in the parts of 

 amaeboid bodies which remain in the hyaline state of 

 nascent protoplasm, and not in those parts which have 

 become granular ; for it is in amaeboid bodies which 

 are in the main hyaline, and not in those which have 

 become decidedly granular, that amaeboid movements are 

 really perceptible. And because these hyaline portions 

 are distributed irregularly, it may be that the variation 

 of expansion, consequent upon changes in the amount 

 of charge, may appear in the guise of that irregular 

 protrusion and retraction of processes which is charac- 

 teristic of amseboid movement. This is all. There is no 



