X 



NUTRITION 



Functions of nutrition — Assimilation and disassimilation — 

 Plasmodoma and plasmophaga — Phytoplasm and zooplasm 

 — Plasmodomism of plants — Chlorophyll granules and nitro- 

 bacteria — Plasmophagism of fungi and animals — Metasi- 

 tism (conversion of metabolism) — Nutrition of the monera 

 (chromacea, bacteria, rhizomonera) — Nutrition of the 

 protophyta and metaphyta (cell-plants and tissue-plants) — 

 Nutrition of the metazoa — Gastrsea theory — Gastro-canal 

 system of the ccelenteria (gastraeads, sponges, cnidaria, 

 platodes) — Nutrition of the ccelomaria (digestion, circula- 

 tion, respiration, evacuation) — Saprositism — Parasitism — 

 Symbiosis. 



THE wonder of life which we call, in the widest sense 

 of the word, "nutrition" is the chief factor in the 

 self-maintenance of the organic individual. It is always 

 bound up with a chemical modification of the living 

 matter, an organic metabolism (circulation of matter), 

 and a corresponding circulation of force. In this 

 chemical process plasm is used up, built up afresh, and 

 once more disintegrated. The metabolism which lies at 

 the root of this chemistry of food is the essential feature 

 in the manifold processes of nutrition. A large part of 

 the several nutritive processes are explained without 

 further trouble by the known physical and chemical 

 properties of inorganic bodies ; for another part of them 

 we have not yet succeeded in doing this. Nevertheless, 

 all impartial physiologists now agree that it is possible 

 in principle, and that we have no reason to introduce 



2lO 



