52 



or THE MOLECULES OF BIOPLASM. 



slowly the remainder of the corpuscle would be 

 drawn onwards, until the whole had moved from the 

 place it originally occupied, and advanced onwards 

 for a short distance in the mucus in which it was 

 embedded. From the first protrusions smaller pro- 

 trusions very often occur, and these gradually become 

 pear-shaped, remaining attached by a narrow stem, 

 and in a few seconds perhaps again become absorbed 

 into the general mass. From time to time, however, 

 some of the small spherical portions are detached 

 from the parent mass, and become independent 

 masses of bioplasm, which grow until they become 

 ordinary " mucus corpuscles." Are these phenomena, 

 I would ask, at all like any known to occiu* in lifeless 

 material ? 



81. Of the moleciUes. — The component molecules 

 evidently alter their positions in a most remarkable 

 manner. One molecule may move in advance of 

 another, or round another. A portion may move 

 into another portion. A bulging may occur at one 

 point of the circumference, or at ten or twenty dif- 

 ferent points at the same moment. The moving 

 power evidently resides in every particle of the very 

 transparent, invariably colourless, and apparently 

 structureless matter. By the very highest powers 

 only an indication as if of minute spherical particles 

 can be discerned. Because "molecules" have been 

 seen in some of the masses of moving matter, the 

 motion has been attributed to these visible particles. 

 It is true the molecules do move, but the living trans- 

 parent material in which they are situated can be 

 seen to move away from the general mass, and into 

 this extended portion the molecules or granules then 

 pass. The perfectly transparent matter moves first, 

 and the molecules flow into it or are moved with it. 

 The movements cannot, therefore, be ordinary mole- 

 cular movements. It has been said that the move- 

 ments may result from diifusion, but what difi'usion 



