THE ENERGY OF THE LIVING PROTOPLASM. 165 
acceptable hypothesis for this activity. Nägeli in his attempt to 
explain the fermentative activity of the yeast-cell assumes a 
certain kind of motion in the living protoplasm, imparted to the 
glucose molecules, loosening affinities, and leading to dis¬ 
ruption into carbon dioxide and alcohol. Me. Laughlin went 
still farther, applying the laws of oscillations established by 
physicists to the action of bacteria in infectious diseases. (I) But 
neither Nägeli nor Me. Laughlin touched the question why such 
energetic motions stop at once on the death of a cell, although 
the conclusion that the living protoplasm must consist of 
easily changeable, labile proteids was close enough at hand. 
Me. Laughlin expresses his views upon the fermentative action of 
bacteria and yeast-cells in the following words : “ The distinctive 
energy or waves of a cell can influence those substances only, 
whose waves bear a certain relationship to those of a yeast-cell ; 
and they must be equal in their periods, direction, and, perhaps, 
in other characteristics, before those on one side can influence 
those on the other. The nature of this influence will again 
depend on whether the two sets of waves coïncide in trough and 
crest. If they do, the waves will supplement each other and 
their amplitude will be enlarged ; if they do not, they will 
antagonise each other, and their amplitude will be diminished, or, 
it may be, the waves will be destroyed by mutual antagonism ; it 
will be remembered that all this occurs in waves of sound, of 
light, and of water, and, if analogy has any merit, it can occur in 
waves of molecular energy.” Such considerations appear to be 
justified, but there exist doubtless other influences which may 
modify the expected result, such as the configuration of the 
plasmic proteids and the tectonic of the plasmic apparatus (see 
1 _ 
pag. 163, foot note). Further, it must be borne in mind that the 
wave motions starting from the living protoplasm are of a far 
more energetic nature than the molecular oscillations of any 
other material in the cell. 
The chemical performances of living organisms could not fail 
(1) Fermentation, Infection, and Immunity, Austin , 1892. This treatise starts, 
however, on several occasions from assertions which recently have been proved to be 
incorrect. The toxalbumins of the infectious diseases are not produced from animal 
proteids by fermentative actions, but are secretions of the bacterial protoplasm which 
are formed even in culture media devoid of proteids. 
