M N E R A 



relations of the bacteria from the modern point of view 

 of the theory of descent is bewildered at the extraor- 

 dinary views as to the place of the bacteria in the 

 plant-world (as segmentation-fungi), their relations to 

 other classes of plants, and the formation of their 

 species. When we carefully consider the morphological 

 properties that are common to all true bacteria and 

 compare them with other organisms, we are forced to the 

 conclusion that I urged years ago in various writings: 

 the bacteria are not real (nucleated) cells, but un- 

 nucleated cytodes of the rank of the monera; they are 

 not real (tissue-forming) fungi, but simple protists; 

 their nearest relatives are the chromacea. 



The individual organisms of the simplest kind, which 

 bacteriologists call "bacteria-cells," are not real nucle- 

 ated cells. That is the clear negative result of a number of 

 most careful investigations which have been made up to 

 date with the object of finding a nucleus in the plasma- 

 body of the bacteria. Among recent exact investigations 

 we must especially note those of the botanist Reinke, 

 of Kiel, who sought in vain to detect a nucleus in one 

 of the largest and most easily studied genera of the 

 bacteria, the beggiatoa, using every modern technical 

 aid. His conviction that this important cell-structure 

 is really lacking is the more valuable, as it is very 

 prejudicial to his own theory of "dominants." Other 

 scientists (especially Schaudinn) have recently claimed, 

 as equivalent to a nucleus in some of the larger bacteria, 

 a number of very small granules, which are irregularly 

 distributed in the plasm, and are strongly tinted under 

 certain coloring processes. But even if the chemical 

 identity of these substances which take the same color 

 were proved — which is certainly not the case — and even 

 if the appearance of scattered nuclein-granules in the 

 plasm could be regarded as a preliminary to, or a 

 beginning of, the differentiation of an individual, 



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