1866.] 



Cells in Animal Bodies. 



315 



mass of such a cluster became transformed into a large sphere, containing 

 two, four or more " nuclei." The resulting body was to all appearance 

 identical with shapes well known under the name of " mother-cells." In all 

 these cases the granular shred must have partly consisted of a viscid ma- 

 terial, which, on imbibition, naturally assumed the spherical shape. 



Primary globules were surrounded by a secondary globule, and thus the 

 typical " cell " was completed under the observer's eye. 



In some instances the globules resulting from the transformation of the 

 granular mass were at first bright and transparent, the granules having 

 completely disappeared. They, however, gradually reformed, showing at 

 first molecular motion, then crowding more and more, till at last the whole 

 mass seemed to undergo coagulation. 



Alternate liquefaction and coagulation of the same material v/as found to 

 piay an important part in the development of "cells." 



Masses of certain viscid materials do not, on imbibition, expand uni- 

 formly throughout their entire bulk, but globules of a definite size are 

 emitted, as m.anyas the mass will yield. 



The crystalline lens of many young animals affords, v/hen treated with 

 water, a beautiful illustration of this fact. Its homogeneous material is 

 transformed, under the influence of imbibition, into a vast number of 

 globules of nearly equal size. 



Hyaline embryonic tissues display, under similar conditions, the same 

 phenomenon. 



Certain inferences lead one to suspect that this size-limiting property is 

 due to the crystaUizing propensity of some ingredient of these viscid 

 substances. 



Blood-corpuscles, human blood corpuscles at least, are evidently tiny 

 lumps of a uniformly viscid material. 



When broken up into fragments, each fragment assumes the spherical 

 shape. 



On slow imbibition, they often emit a clear sphere, or a segment of one. 



In various specimens of foetal blood, each blood-corpuscle was seen to 

 emit as many as two and even three equally sized globules, the original cor- 

 puscle being at last no more distinguishable from its descendants. This 

 is sufficient proof of the uniformly viscous nature of the blood-corpuscles. 



In many cancers the most recently formed part consists of mere fibres. 

 These after a time become "nucleated." The "nuclei" are at first very 

 elongated, this being due to the lateral pressure of the still fibrous texture. 

 But as tbe mass gradually softens, the ovals expand more and more into 

 spheres, forming the primary globules, round which, as has already been 

 shown, a secondary globule is often seen to shape itself. 



Chemical differentiation transforms first one portion of the fibrous mass 

 into viscid material. This at once strives, by imbibition, to assume the 



