RELATION OF WATER TO THE PROTOPLASM 61 



This removal of water occasions a need for a continuous 

 replenishment of the liquid in the vacuoles, which is 

 brought about by the same modified osmosis which has 

 been described. We can see that this process must be 

 continually taking place in a complex of succulent cells. 

 If we consider two which are contiguous and are separated 

 from each other by a common cell-wall, it is evident that 

 unless the proportion of water to osmotic substances in the 

 vacuoles of both is the same, osmotic currents will flow 

 from one to the other till this equilibrium is reached. 

 Any disturbance taking place in one cell of a complex will 

 hence spread from cell to cell until the composition of the 

 fluid contents of them all is uniform. When we consider 

 the differences, sometimes very slight, sometimes more 

 extensive, which are continually taking place in the meta- 

 bolic activities of the separate cells of a community, it is 

 evident that, so long as life lasts, osmotic currents of this 

 kind must be continually passing from cell to cell in various 

 directions, and frequently at very different rates. 



Evaporation from a cell into an intercellular space 

 must lead to a certain increase of the concentration of the 

 solution of osmotically active substance in its vacuole. 

 This then attracts water from the contiguous cells, and 

 consequently, independently of metabolic changes affecting 

 the quantities of such osmotic bodies, evaporation itself 

 must help in causing movements of water from cell to cell. 



The quantity of these osmotic substances which are 

 present in any particular cell will depend upon the 

 behaviour of the protoplasm from time to time. Such 

 substances are usually being continually produced in all 

 growing cells, and in most others in which chemical 

 changes are proceeding. Hence such cells are continually 

 absorbing water, and are consequently so full that a certain 

 stretching force is exerted on the cell-wall which bounds 

 them. Cells in such a condition are called turgid, and 

 the condition itself is known as turgor or turgescence. The 

 equilibrium which is attained by such a cell is reached 



