ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
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of the cell — nucleus, cliromatophores, crystals, &c. — are carried along in 
tlie current, the cell-sap of the peripheral portion also taking part in it. 
The author has determined that these movements are not always, as 
some have supposed, the result of lesion, though they are often provoked 
by external injury. A primary movement, independent of lesion, occurs 
in cells belonging to every conceivable kind of active tissue, and in 
all classes of plants. It commences with the sudden movement of 
separate particles of the protoplasm ; currents are often set up in 
opposite directions with only a very narrow zone between them, the 
particles in the two currents frequently cannoning against one another, 
and then proceeding in their original direction. 
Changes of external condition have a great effect in promoting the 
movement of the protoplasm, as e.g. the isolation of the cell, or placing 
it in an artificial medium, such as a 5 per cent, solution of sugar ; it is 
affected greatly by changes of temperature, but not by light inde- 
pendent of temperature, nor by gravitation, nor by the electric current ; 
chemical agents which have an injurious influence on the life of the cell 
also retard the circulation of the protoplasm. The presence of oxygen 
is, however, indispensable for it. The circulation in one cell is quite 
independent of that in adjoining cells, and there is never any mass- 
movement of the entire protoplasm of a cell. Although these movements 
are an evidence of the activity of the protoplasm, their intensity is by 
no means always in proportion to that activity. 
Proteosomes.* — Herren 0. Loew and T. Bokorny have further inves- 
tigated the nature of these bodies produced in living cells by the action 
of coffein or antipyrin, and confirm their previous statement — in opposi- 
tion to the view of Klemm — that they consist of active albumen. They 
occur in a great number of plants, in Algae, and in stamens, young leaves, 
petals, epiderm, hairs, sometimes in either the cytoplasm only or in the 
cell-sap only, in Spirogyra and other organisms in both. Their albu- 
minous nature is indisputable, as shown by their behaviour to Millon’s 
reagent, their coagulation with boiling water, and in other ways, though 
they may enclose various other substances, such as tannin. They are very 
readily transformed into passive albumen. The authors re-state their 
conviction that living organisms contain groups of aldehyds. 
In another paper, Dr. T. Bokorny j maintains, in opposition to 
Klemm, his previous statement that the proteosomes in the leaves of 
Crassulaceae ( Echeveria ) are formed in the cytoplasm and not in the 
cell-sap. Their behaviour is precisely the same in Echeveria as in 
Spirogyra. 
(2) Other Cell-contents (including- Secretions). 
Formation of Starch.! — M. J. C. Koningsberger has studied tho 
mode of formation of starch in the Angiosperms, and points out a 
difference in this respect between Monocotyledons and Dicotyledons. 
Of the two modes of formation of starch-grains — directly from the proto- 
plasm or through the intervention of amyloleucites or starch-generators 
— the latter is more common among Monocotyledons (12 out of 18 species 
* Flora, Ixxvi. (1892) Erganzungsband, pp. 117-29; and Bot. Centralbl., liii. 
(1893) pp. 187-9. Cf. this Journal, 1892, p. 631. 
t Her. Deutsch. Bot. Gesell., x. (1892) pp. 619-21. 
j Arch. Neerl. Sci. Ex. et Nat., xxvi. (1893) pp.- 217-58. 
