22 LIVING PROTOPLASM AND CHEMICAL LABILITY. 



cells and the heat developed on the death of larger cellular 

 complexes like muscles can be measured with the thermometer. — 



The vital phenomena depend upon the labil aldehydic charac- 

 ter of the living protoplasm ; this labil character gives rise to 

 respiration. Respiration produces heat, and heat again increases 

 the oscillations of the labil atomic groups in the living proto- 

 plasm, until a certain limit is reached. Hereby a transformation 

 of heat into chemical activity results, the vital motion thus 

 leads to vital functions. We propose to call the resulting vital 

 motion : plasmic force, instead of vital force, which name would 

 recall the erroneous conceptions of former times. We define 

 therefore the plasmic energy as a mode of motion produced by the 

 labil atomgroups in the proteids of the living protoplasm and intensifi- 

 ed by the process of respiration, induced by the labil character. 



However not only is the chemical structure of the proteids a 

 labil one, but so also is the morphological structure of the proto- 

 plasm, the tectonic, i.e. the invisible arrangement of the molecules 

 of active albumen to small particles of protoplasm, composing 

 the organoids of the cells (nucleus, chloroplasts, filarplasm, 

 tonoplast etc.). 2) Slight disturbances of a mechanical nature 

 produce contraction and death. The chemical attack of a poison 

 upon only a minute portion of the protoplasm of a living cell may 

 cause the collaps of the entire protoplasm. The morphological 

 construction and the chemical nature of the living protoplasm are 

 evidently most intimately connected ; an injury to one will also 

 damage the other : The living protoplasm is a labil structure built 

 up of labil material. 



1) Contraction of cytoplasm in plantcells is not observed however in some 

 special cases, as treatment with absolute alcohol, acids and dilute caustic lyes. But 

 an invisible contraction has nevertheless taken place also in these cases, as can be 

 demonstrated by the loss of the osmotic qualities of the cytoplasm. The pores have 

 become so large, that the osmotic membrane has changed into a filter, that now 

 permits easily the exit from the vacuole of various substances, as tannin etc. 



2) It is convenient to distinguish the invisible organisation as " tectonic " from 

 the visible organisation, i.e. differentiation into different organoids of a cell. 



