ii8 PROTOPLASM 



organisms, while showing the greatest simplicity of structure 

 in many respects, also permit the alveolar structure of living 

 matter to be made out in them ; and I might perhaps have 

 further pointed out that Ktinstler also (1889) quite inde- 

 pendently, by staining with Noir de Collin, observed, in the 

 body of a Bacterium termed by him Spirillum tenue, the 

 same alveolar structure which I demonstrated by somewhat 

 different methods in Spirillum iindula, Ehrb., and a number 

 of other Bacteria; if Alfred Fischer, in a work on Tlie 

 Plasmolysis of the Bacteria, had not in the meanwhile 

 raised some objections to the interpretation of the structure 

 of Bacteria and Cyanophycece which I based upon detailed 

 studies. I feel myself bound to consider these objections 

 more closely. As a matter of fact, his objections seem to 

 me to lack cogency, and on that account I would have 

 gladly left them to be contradicted by the decision of some 

 third person of judgment and experience in this department 

 of knowledge ; since, however, in the eyes of so many people 

 the right seems to lie on the side of that person who has 

 spoken the last word, and the importance of facts formerly 

 advanced becomes forgotten, through each person scarcely 

 finding time to master his own limited province at all 

 thoroughly, I have made up my mind to refute in this 

 place the somewhat peculiar method of argument adopted 

 by Herr Fischer. 



Fischer has not in any way troubled himself to study 

 from his point of view any one of the forms investigated by 

 me, nor one of the typical large Bacteria, upon the investi- 

 gation of which I based my description. He has not even 

 examined the Oscillarice, which are always accessible to any 

 one, in the least according to the methods suggested by me. 

 Nevertheless he considers himself quite justified in declaring 

 my views as to the structure of the organisms in question 

 to be quite erroneous, on the ground of some experiments 

 upon the plasmolytic contraction of the contents of certain 

 bacterial cells. What I described as a radially striated 

 layer of protoplasm of alveolar structi;re in the large 

 Bacteria, such as Chromatium olcenii and Ophidomonasjhunsis, 

 as well as in the numerous Oseillarice investigated, is 



