Wenham, 071 the Vegetable Cell. 
5 
screws its way through the water with a somewhat uniform 
speed.* 
Having briefly noticed some of the properties of proto- 
plasm, I will proceed at once to the main subject of my paper. 
I have selected the Anacharis Alsinastrum as one of the 
subjects of investigation, chiefly on account of the magnitude 
of the vital phenomena, and also because the perfect trans- 
parency of the walls of the cells permits their internal move- 
ments to be seen without impediment in the earliest stages of 
growth, the action continuing under considerable mutilation 
Fearing that I am digressing too far from the direct title of this 
communication, I append this note, submitting some further remarks on 
corpuscular motion. When a single active molecule is in an isolated 
position, its vibrations occur srontaneously and at random in all directions ; 
but when a number are combined together in a line of narrow compass, if 
they have a tendency to mutual entanglement or adherence, as in the 
instance of the component gelatinous corpuscles of protoplasm, the longi- 
tudinal vibrations are restricted, and the atoms are compelled to move 
from side to side, or transversely. This occasions a waving or serpentine 
movement of the thread-like current, which causes the whole to travel in 
a straUjlitforward direction ; thus accounting for the circulation in the 
vegetable cell. In some plant cells a thread of protoj^lasm, consisting of 
a single line of particles, displays in its appearance such a remarkable 
analogy to a single cilium, that I am inclined to consider the sernir/cd fila- 
ment, attached to some vegetable spores, as a simple line of conjoined 
active corpuscles, the lateral vibrations of which cause the undulating and 
progressive motions of the filament. 
I cannot at present call to mind any instance wherein a strictly vegetaUe 
cilium is possessed of a permanent existence. After its first temporary 
office is fulfilled, as an organ of locomotion, for propelling the vital spore 
to another locality, it s[^,eedily becomes disorganised, and disappears. 
On the other hand, the animal cilium, used either as a prehensile or 
motile organ, is far more complicated. It is endowed with permanency, 
and capable of renewal in cases of injury. 
As a matter of conjecture, I offer a remark on those minute bodies 
termed spizilla, or spirozoids, which are found in decomposing vegetable 
and animal solutions. The}'^ are sometimes so irregular in shape, length, 
and bulk, that 1 suppose them to he merely associated particles of organic 
matter linked together. If the component atoms are in a state of mole- 
cular activity, the progressive undulations of the filament will cause the 
helix to turn on its axis, and, in consequence, these corkscrewMike forms 
advance through the fluid by rotation. 
In the paper contributed to the last number of this Journal by Mr. 
Busk, we are informed of the fact, that associated vital corpuscles in the 
living animal possess the same tendency to travel in a direct forward 
course as in the vegetable cell : — page 22 : " A remarkable circumstance 
observable in the spermatic cavities of Sagitta, is the continual cyclosis 
performed by their contents. These will be seen constantly ascending on 
the outer, and descending on the internal wall, or sej'tum." 1 have some- 
times seen a cyclosis in the L of if era, in an organ which I presume to be 
a spermatic vesicle ; but this discovery, in a being apparently so highly 
organised as the Sagitta hipunctata, is an important advance into the 
mysteries of animal creation. 
