14 THE GENERAL CHARACTERS OF CELLS, BY S. STRICKER. 



Bottcher,* on the other hand, has expressed his doubt upon the 

 existence of any such connection, on the ground that the granules 

 which vibrate in the cells continue the same movement when they have 

 escaped from the interior (by bursting of the cells), provided that the 

 medium into which they pass is of an appropriate nature. 



Neumannf founded his objection on the fact that the vibratile move- 

 ment still occurred in cells which were dead or on the point of death. 



The idea of a connection existing between the movement 

 and the life of the protoplasm is essentially based upon these 

 facts ; first, that the cells in which it occurs are living cells, 

 and secondly, that changes in the phenomena of life induce, or 

 are followed by, changes in the motion of the granules. In the 

 meantime, observation of the movement of the granules alone 

 cannot enable us to draw any conclusion in regard to its depend- 

 ance on life, so long as it is only a vibratory and not a pro- 

 gressive movement, and so long as some peculiarities are not 

 discovered in these vibratory movements, which justify such a 

 conclusion. 



a. CHANGES IN FORM of the entire mass of the protoplasmic 

 mass are most strongly marked in the lower forms of animal 

 life. 



Max Schultze,J in his description of the mode in which the 

 Amoeba of Ehrenberg or Proteus (0. F. Muller) obtains its 

 food, furnishes the following lively picture of its movements : 



When an amoeba approximates another animal whose move- 

 ments are not so swift as to enable it to escape from its enemy, 

 it embraces it with its many-stalked body. The processes meet- 

 ing on either side, coalesce, and after thus investing the whole 

 mass with animal substance, the Amoeba maintains its grasp 

 till it has abstracted all the portions that are soluble. On 

 account of this remarkable peculiarity of the Amoeba, those 

 cells which possess the power of spontaneously moving, are 

 termed amoeboid cells. It is rare, however, for the cells of 

 the more highly organised animals to move so rapidly as the 

 Amoeba itself. 



* Virchow's Archiv, Band xxxv. 



t Reichert and Du Bois Reymond's Archiv, 1867. 



I Polythalamien, 1854, p. 8. 



