OF MICR O- OR GANISMS. i o i 



We certainly cannot regard the protoplasm as in- 

 ert matter; but what appears probable is, that the pro- 

 toplasm receives from the nucleus the communication, 

 the delegation of physiological powers. The nucleus is 

 in a certain sense the focal seat of life in all its forms. 



If we get rid of the nucleus by artificial section, 

 the fragment of enucleated protoplasm continues to 

 live for some time, having received from the nucleus 

 an impulsion that has not yet been exhausted; but af- 

 ter a certain length of time, the impulsion given by the 

 nucleus not being renewed, the protoplasm runs its 

 course and dies. 



From the psychical point of view, which more par- 

 ticularly occupies our attention here, how are the re- 

 sults of these experiments in cellular vivisection to be 

 explained? When a fragment of an organism, deprived 

 of nuclear substance, is seen to move about freely and 

 with the same activity as if it still possessed its nu- 

 cleus, we are constrained to admit that the phenom- 

 ena of the life of relation, or movement and sen- 

 sibility, have their seat in the protoplasm. But it is 

 probable that such physiological capacities as the 

 powers of nutrition, are not inherent in protoplasm; 

 they depend immediately upon the presence of the 

 nucleus, for they disappear little by little and finally 

 vanish a few days after the removal of the nucleus.* 



It may be mentioned in passing, that there are cer- 

 tain psychical properties which the nucleus apparently 

 does not transmit to the protoplasm, but which it re- 

 tains for itself; this is the case with the instinct of gen- 



* The difficult question here, is to ascertain whether the psychical proper- 

 ties of the protoplasm are destroyed through the direct effect of the disorgan- 

 ization of the plasma, or whether they disappear a short time before the 

 process of disorganization and in consequence of the absence of nuclear sub- 

 stance. 



