200 PROTOPLASM 



The chromatin granules of the nuclei are regarded by him 

 as being quite certainly " granula," hence he will be obliged 

 to admit that Bacteria may themselves contain granula. 

 However, I have sufficiently set forth my views with regard 

 to Bacteria in another place (1890), to which I may 

 refer the reader, and I consider that I have there also 

 refuted Altmann's view that the Bacteria are non-nucleated 

 primitive organisms of a peculiar kind, comparable to the 

 granules of the nucleus and the protoplasm. The Bacteria, 

 according to my conception of them, are partly comparable 

 to the nuclei of higher animals, without any clearly demon- 

 strable trace of protoplasm apart from the cilium, and 

 partly, on the other hand, to nuclei, with a scanty envelope 

 of protoplasm. Still less, however, is Altmann's assertion 

 justified, that many other Protista also, e.g. Sarcodina, are 

 non-nucleated, and that we may, to some extent, compare 

 the process of formation of a nucleus with the encystation 

 of such a monerous Sarcodine, as a process in which a portion 

 of the original protoplasm becomes encapsuled as a nucleus, 

 while another portion remains persistent round the nuclear 

 capsule as the protoplasm of the cell. Unfortunately Alt- 

 mann has omitted to specify by name any case of encyst- 

 ment in Protista which might appear to him to serve as a 

 commencing nuclear formation of this kind. I am inclined 

 to believe that what he had in his mind was not true 

 encystment, but something like the structure of the Eadio- 

 laria or the shell-bearing Ehizopoda. Since, however, in all 

 these cases, as also in the true encystment of the Protista, 

 nuclei are known with sufficient certainty to be present, the 

 entire comparison does not, on the whole, prove what it is 

 intended to. 



On the other hand, however, it is quite possible that, 

 among the strongly staining granules of the protoplasm, 

 there are in reality bodies which can be homologised with 

 Bacteria, so-called Bacteroids, as they have been termed, 

 which have been frequently demonstrated in vegetable and 

 animal cells. I had already at an early date pointed out 

 that the numerous granules which fill the endoplasm of the 

 Ciliata reminded me strongly of Micrococci, and with regard 



