June 10, 1898.] 



SCIENCE. 



803 



Now, Biitschli's famous vesicular theory of 

 protoplasm argues for a physico-chemical inter- 

 pretation of protoplasmic activities. Believing 

 that he had discovered a fundamental vesicular 

 structure, Biitschli held that amosboid move- 

 ments, the phenomena of cell division, and even 

 contractility, may be interpreted as results of 

 osmotic interchanges, surface tensions and ex- 

 tension currents amongst the lifeless lamelke of 

 this structure. He admits, however, " I find 

 myself unable * * to apply the same physical 

 explanation to the finer formations, such as the 

 freefllose formations * *." Further, that " the 

 morphological method, so fruitful in research 

 amongst multicellular organisms, fails in our re- 

 search into the essential nature of the ele- 

 mentary organism — the cell." 



Compare the following from ' The Living 

 Substance.' 



(1) "The vital phenomena of protoplasm were 

 seen to be not so much manifestations of the 

 vesicular form of the substance, as upon, or 

 through, this," p. 67. (2) "The co-existence 

 of a stable and perfect structure of Biitschli, 

 with a host of metamorphosing activities of the 

 substance as such ; this forms one of the strongest 

 reasons I would urge for preferring optical re- 

 search upon the living material," p. 68. (3) 

 "It is the free filose formations, not amoeboid 

 flow, which I fiad to be most universal, most 

 characteristic and most fundamental in the liv- 

 ing substance," p. 78. (4) "It is then, not 

 that compound of cells whose multiplication we 

 have watched with such breathless interest that 

 is the true organism, but the continuous sub- 

 stance, by whose local deposits of specific ma- 

 terials these cells and their nviclear machinery 

 are built up * * * . And within the organism's 

 limits, the protoplastic substance as such retains, 

 one must now believe, all those protoplastic 

 powers, which are seen in free Heliozoa — all those 

 tactile and selective and sensitively irritable, 

 and contractile, functions that protoplasm ex- 

 hibits when placed externally to cells, areas, or 

 masses. On this protoplastic substance the race 

 habit depends, and in it are rooted all other 

 habits of organisms," p. 170. (5) " Organs no 

 longer appear as compounds of certain differfent 

 sorts of cells, but as a complex of minute sub- 

 stance organs," p. 151. (6) "The organism as 



we have known it, is secondary, incidental to 

 the life-history of the protoplastic, continuous 

 substance of the living being ; is result, rather 

 than cause, of substance habit," p. 171. (7) 

 ' ' We are not denied an ultimate return to 

 purely physical interpretations * * * but we 

 are bidden for the time to a physiological 

 standpoint as more immediately fruitful," p. 

 119. Under Areal Differentiation, Striation 

 and Activities, hundreds of radically new facts 

 prove that any present application of physico- 

 chemical explanations, by means of vesicular 

 structure, to either contractility or cell division 

 is not possible. 



The rest of F. A. D's article bears out the be- 

 ginning, is a crescendo of similar blunders and 

 guesses — personal in tone, hysteric in timbre, 

 and unsupported by a single quotation ; but in 

 view of the cardinal absurdity of wholly ignoring 

 the text of the book ' criticised,' one's sense of 

 humor vetoes further analysis. 



G. F. Andrews. 



SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 

 La face de la terre (Das Anlitz der Erde). 

 Edouaed Suess. Translated from the Ger- 

 man with the approval of the author and an- 

 notated under the direction of Emm. de 

 Maegeeie, with a preface by Peofessok 

 Maecel Berteand. Paris, Armand Colin 

 et Cie. 1897. Vol. I. Pp. 835. "With two 

 maps in colors and 122 figures. 

 The first part of Das Anlitz der Erde ap- 

 peared in 1895. The author set himself the 

 task of marshalling the movements of the 

 earth's crust into a system. The work gives 

 the result of his studies of mountain systems 

 and of the adjacent plateaus and plains. From 

 its scope and the radical views of the author, 

 the treatise takes a place in geological literature 

 with the famous Notices sur les systems des 

 montagnes of De Beaumont, published in 1852. 

 De Beaumont gave us, perhaps, the first clear 

 statement of the contraction hypothesis in its 

 relation to mountain building. In his treatise 

 on mountains he sought to establish the princi- 

 ple that mountain chains of the same age are 

 parallel to the same great circle. In attempt- 

 ing to defend his thesis, De Beaumont made 



