Protoplasmic Nervous Currents Universal 43 
each little layer of the cell membranes of plants, the 
formation of a membrane in an anuclear fragment of a 
vegetable cell in consequence of a nuclear stimulus trans- 
mitted from the nucleus of another cell along any proto- 
plasmic conductor, all these facts speak together in favor 
of the hypothesis that all living substance is traversed 
by vital nervous energy in the form of currents. 
Claude Bernard has already remarked that anaesthe- 
tics act not only upon the nervous system but also upon 
the cells of every animal or vegetable tissue, in that 
they destroy or suspend the vital activity of every cell 
in the same way, and from that he concludes that all 
vital processes in general are substantially identical.2° 
This substantial identity is demonstrated further by 
the fact that phenomena of irrito-contractility present 
themselves in the same way in both animal and vegetable 
kingdoms and that there are all possible transition 
stages between plants considered “especially sensitive’ 
and those considered not sensitive at all. The whole 
group of “especially sensitive” plants present especially 
well developed intercellular protoplasmic connections.?! 
We recall further the microscopic movements of the 
protoplasm within the membranes of plant cells, which 
led Huxley to make the well known definition that a 
plant is only ‘fan animal shut up in a wooden box.” 
Everybody knows that in addition to these micro- 
scopic movements there are now known in plants also 
various movements visible to the naked eye, which cor- 
?°Claude Bernard: Lecons sur les phénoménes de la vie communs 
aux animaux et aux végétaux. Paris, Bailliére, 1878. P. 289—290. 
*tMacfarlane: Irrito-contractility in plants. Biol. Lect. at the 
Mar. Biol. Lab. of Wood’s Holl. Summer Session 1893. Boston, 
U. S. A., Ginn. 1894. P. 189, 204. 
