EXPERIMENTS WITH RADIUM 109 



stages, as in the figures, until a shape is 

 reached difiierent from its previous forms, when it 

 divides and loses its individuality, and ultimately 

 becomes resolved into minute crystals. This is 

 a development which no crystal has yet been 

 known to make, and forces upon the mind the idea 

 that these bodies must be organisms ; the fact, how- 

 ever, that they are soluble in water seems, on the 

 other hand, to disprove the suggestion that they can 

 be bacteria. But the stoppage of growth at a certain 

 stage of development, together with the particular 

 subdivision, is a clear indication of the continuous 

 adjustment of internal to external relations, and 

 thus suggests vitality. 



The continuity of structure, assimilation and 

 growth, and then the particular subdivision, together 

 with the nucleated structure as shown in a few of 

 the best specimens in Plate II., indicate a process like 

 vitality, whether we call these forms bacteria or not. 

 There is further a subdivision of the nucleus, as in 

 karyokinesis, which will be discussed later on. 



As they do not possess all the properties of 

 bacteria they are not what are understood by this 

 name, and obviously lie altogether outside the beaten 

 track of living things. This, however, will not 

 prevent such bodies from coming within the realm 

 of biology ; and, in fact, they appear to possess 

 many of the qualities and properties which enable 

 them to be placed in the borderland, so to speak, 

 between crystals and bacteria — organisms in the 

 sense in which we have employed the word, and possibly 



