8 
MODERN STEPS OF PROGRESS. 
there is probably as much complexity as in the disposition of the 
organs of the higher animals. The variations of protoplasm are 
astonishing ; the adaptivness to different functions unsurpassed 
by any of the higher developed organisms. How different 
must be the molecular arrangement in the celles of the bile- 
producing liver from that of the cells of saliva-and again of the 
cells of milk-producing glands ! How different a machine 
must exist in the cells of the resin-producing glands of the 
conifers from that of the sugar-secreting cells of the nectaries. 
What a wide difference again must exist between the organi¬ 
sation of a fungus-spore and a pollen-cell ! Only individualised, 
specifically organised, till to the finest detail jointed and dif¬ 
ferentiated structures can be the sources of the different actions 
connected with life ! Haustein expressed this logical conclusion 
in the following words : “ Even the most simple Protococcus or 
Monad- cell is certainly of a complicated organisation, even if so 
small that the best microscopes do not reveal a differentiation 
of the cytoplasm; there is no vital action without a vital struc¬ 
ture. I >” 
But nothing would be gained from the differentiation of the 
protoplasmatic machines, if there were no motive power. 
What kindles then the fire, that produces the necessary steam ? 
That “primum movens” must be united with the machine, most 
intimately connected with it, and is absolutely necessary for 
bringing on the most wonderful differentiations in form and 
functions, which arise from a single original egg-cell, when 
developing itself to an animal with the complicated system of 
nerve,-muscles and gland-cells, with the different cellular forms 
in epidermis and in bones. What a great variety of cellular 
forms are found in a tree ! How many cells must sacrifice their 
individual existence during the development of an organism for 
the formation of tubular systems and aquaeducts ! 
How in view of these most complicated phenomena the 
older opinion can still be defended by some physiologists that the 
protoplasm is a varying mixture of different substances , is a “ mix- 
turn compositum ”, remains incomprehensible to a logical mind. 
Reinke found for instance in the plasmodium of Aethalium septicum 
(a fungus belonging to the mixomycetes), 27 percent of carbonate 
1) Das Protplasma, p. 308 ff. (1880). 
