simple explanation by supposing that the “phase difference” (as the
chemists say) between the nuclear and the protoplasmic substance is
comparatively slight, and the surface-tension which tends to keep them
separate is correspondingly small[223].
It has been shewn that ordinary nuclei, isolated in a living or fresh
state, easily flow together; and this fact is enough to suggest that
they are aggregations of a particular substance rather than bodies
deserving the name of particular organs. It is by reason of the same
tendency to confluence or aggregation of particles that the ordinary
nucleus is itself formed, until the imposition of a new force leads to
its disruption.
Apart from that invisible or ultra-microscopic heterogeneity which
is inseparable from our notion of a “colloid,” there is a visible
heterogeneity of structure within both the nucleus and the outer
protoplasm. The former, for instance, contains a rounded nucleolus
or “germinal spot,” certain conspicuous granules or strands of the
peculiar substance called chromatin, and a coarse meshwork of a
protoplasmic material known as “linin” or achromatin; the outer
protoplasm, or cytoplasm, is generally believed to consist throughout
of a sponge-work, or rather alveolar meshwork, of more and less fluid
substances; and lastly, there are generally to be detected one or more
very minute bodies, usually in the cytoplasm, sometimes within the
nucleus, known as the centrosome or centrosomes.
The morphologist is accustomed to speak of a “polarity” of {167}
the cell, meaning thereby a symmetry of visible structure about a
particular axis. For instance, whenever we can recognise in a cell
both a nucleus and a centrosome, we may consider a line drawn through
the two as the morphological axis of polarity; in an epithelium cell,
it is obvious that the cell is morphologically symmetrical about a
median axis passing from its free surface to its attached base. Again,
by an extension of the term “polarity,” as is customary in dynamics,
we may have a “radial” polarity, between centre and periphery; and
lastly, we may have several apparently independent centres of polarity
within the single cell. Only in cells of quite irregular, or amoeboid
form, do we fail to recognise a definite and symmetrical “polarity.”
The _morphological_ “polarity” is accompanied by, and is but the
outward expression (or part of it) of a true _dynamical_ polarity, or
distribution of forces; and the “lines of force” are rendered visible
by concatenation of particles of matter, such as come under the
influence of the forces in action.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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