PFITZNER'S THEORIES 193 



structures, and comes to the conclusion that this view, 

 already originated by Be*champ (1867), may well be the 

 correct one. His remarks upon this are as follows : " La 

 granulation proteique du protoplasme est peut-etre un 

 eldmen t vivant, line cellule, dont la vie et la fouction 

 re'guliseraient et speciferaient dans un sens physiologique 

 determine, 1'etre complexe, que nous ddsignerons encore sous 

 le nom de cellule simple ou primitive." His grounds for 

 this assumption are the great resemblance of the granulations 

 to micrococci. 



Pfitzner also tried to demonstrate theoretically in 1883 

 that the structures of protoplasm have arisen from the 

 arrangement of the granules in series. In fact this idea 

 seemed so obvious, that the radiating phenomena in division 

 have since their first discovery usually been referred to the 

 protoplasmic granules being arranged in rows. As has 

 already been mentioned above, Pfitzner distinguishes 

 between the active and passive structures of protoplasm. 

 By the latter he understands reticular structures produced 

 by vacuolisation. He is of the opinion that the majority of 

 the protoplasmic structures hitherto described belong to 

 this category. Active structures, on the other hand, would 

 be such as are produced by attraction and repulsion of the 

 small particles which are suspended in the protoplasm. 

 Pfitzner conceives of these particles as viscid, and the 

 ground substance in which they are found as fluid. If 

 attraction prevails, the particles flow together into larger 

 drops, as, for example, in fat cells, where they fuse into fat 

 drops of considerable size. If, on the other hand, repulsion 

 prevails, the minute particles become evenly distributed in 

 the ground substance, as, for example, the pigment granules 

 in pigment cells. But when repulsion and attraction are 

 equal, the particles only come into contact, and range them- 

 selves alongside of one another, as a result of which certain 

 structures arise if the particles refract the light more strongly 

 than the ground substance. The form assumed by the 

 filamentous framework, which is built up by the serial 

 arrangement of the granules, depends on the " intensity of 

 the attraction." When it has a certain strength, each par- 



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