22 
LIVING PROTOPLASM AND CHEMICAL LABILITY. 
cells 1 ), 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 o 
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 col laps 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. 
