PROTOPLASMIC MOVEMENTS. 49 



and also as an evidence of the essentially distinct na- 

 ture of vital power. 



The movements of protoplasm masses when not con- 

 fined by a rigid cell wall, as seen in the white blood 

 corpuscle, mucus, or pus-corpuscle, the amoeba, &c., are 

 graphically described and frequently dwelt on by Dr. 

 Beale ; but, as these are so well known now, I will not 

 repeat them, but only notice those movements in- 

 stanced by him as serving a purpose, and showing a 

 power, not explicable, as he thinks, by the properties 

 of matter and force. In nutrition, he observes, " This 

 formless living matter moves forwards, burrowing, as 

 it were, into the nutrient pabulum, some of which it 

 takes up as it moves on. It is not pushed from be- 

 hind, but it moves forwards of its own accord. In a 

 similar manner, the advancing fungus bores its way 

 into the material upon which it feeds, and the root 

 filament insinuates itself into the interstices between 

 the particles of the soil where it finds the pabulum 

 for its nutriment." " The tree grows upwards, against 

 gravity, by virtue of the same living power of bio- 

 plasm. In every bud portions of this living matter 

 tend to move away from the spot where they were pro- 

 duced, and stretch upwards or onwards in advance. 

 No tissue of any living animal could be formed unless 

 the portions of bioplasm moved away from one an- 

 other." The movements in the cells of the leaves of 

 Vallisneria, Chara, or Anacharis, and in the hairs of 

 Tradescantia, are of the same nature as those of the 

 mucous corpuscle and the amoeba.* The movements in 



* In 1855, linger (" Anat. and Phys. der Pflanzen ") says, " The 

 proximate cause of the movements of the sap in the cells " (of plants) 



4 



