It is evident from the above considerations that encystment in no way corresponds with that which every one, including myself, understands by death, because during encystment one and the same being is first apparently dead and then again alive; and we merely witness a condition of rest, from which active life will again emerge. This would remain true even if it were proved that life is, in reality, suspended for a time. But such proof is still wanting, and Götte was apparently only influenced by theoretical considerations, when he imagined that death intervened where unprejudiced observers have only recognised a condition of rest. He apparently entirely overlooked the fact that it is possible to test his views; for all unicellular beings are in reality capable of dying: we can kill them, for example, by boiling, and they are then really dead and cannot be revived. But this state of the organism differs chemically and physically from the encysted condition, although we do not know all the details of the difference. The encysted animal, when placed in fresh water, presently originates a living individual, but the one killed by boiling only results in decomposition of the dead organic matter. Hence we see that the same external conditions give rise to different results in two different states of the organism. It cannot be right to apply the same term to two totally different states. There is only one phenomenon which can be called death, although it may be produced by widely different causes. But if the encysted condition is not identical with the death which we can produce at will, then natural death, viz. that arising from internal causes, does not exist at all among unicellular organisms. These facts refute Götte’s peculiar view, which depends on the existence of natural death among the Monoplastid organisms; upon proof of the contradictory, his whole theory collapses. But there is nevertheless a certain interest in following it further, for we shall thus reach many ideas worthy of consideration. First, the question arises as to how death could have been transmitted from the Monoplastides[66] to the Polyplastides, a process which must have taken place according to Götte. I will for the present omit the fact that I cannot accept the supposition that the process of encystment represents death. We may then inquire whether death has taken the place of encystment among the Polyplastides, or, if this is not the case, whether any process comparable to encystment exists among the Polyplastides.