Dr. A. Giinther on a new Generic Type of Fishes. 195 



matter ; and in any case we should have to assume in each cell- 

 svstem, not a single primordial sac^ but as many of these as 

 there are of superimposed cells {e. ff. figs. 51 & 52, 80-85), 

 even if it were permissible, in opposition to the idea set up by 

 the founder of this theory, to give the name of the primordial 

 sac to that layer of the cell- wall which is the last to give up its 

 original peculiarity. 



In this case the denomination employed by me for the tissue- 

 cell, of " a cell-system consisting of cells nested one within the 

 other," might be altered into " a tissue-cell consisting of primor- 

 dial sacs nested one within the other." 



Just as the organism requires the complete, normal, endo- 

 genous, serial development and the haruionious cooperation of 

 idl its elementary organs, for the perfect unfolding of its typical 

 form and functions, the normal structure and activity of each 

 of these elementary organs depends upon the undisturbed deve- 

 lopment of ail these simple organizations, which stand in an in- 

 timate reciprocal relation to each other, the cells engaged in a 

 constant interchange of materials, with a structureless spherical 

 envelope and heterogeneous unorganized contents produced in 

 the plastic juice of the mother cell. 



It is only in the duration of the reciprocal action of the con- 

 tents and membrane — the two constantly changing constituents 

 of the cell— that its organization consists. An absolute stoppage 

 of the change of materials of all its parts is coincident with the 

 cessation of the organizatorial activity of the organism. 



The opposite idea — namely that the secretion-structure, the 

 cellulose membrane, just as the calcareous shell is the house of 

 the snail, forms the chamber into which plant-life retires, the 

 house of the plant-cell, and aftenvards its tomb — wouldbecome, 

 if it found acceptance, the winding-sheet of science. 



XXI. — On a new Generic Type of Fishes discovered by the late 

 Dr. Leichardt in QueerulafuL By Albert GCxther, M.A., 

 M.D., Ph.D. 



[PUte VII.] 



Sir Daniel Cooper, Sir Philip G. Egerton, and Mr. G. KreflFt 

 have favoured me with photographs of a fish obtained by the 

 late Dr. Leichardt in the Burdekin River, which evidently is 

 the type of a new and remarkable genus. The specimen from 

 which the photographs were taken is a dry skin, 15 inches 

 long, preserved in the Australian Museum at Sydney. The 

 photograph sent by Sir P. Egerton was accompanied by a scale 

 taken from the middle of the side of the Sydney specimen, and 

 shows a structure very similar to that of the scales of the 



13* 



