Scientific American Supplement, No. 324, March 18, 1882Various
Science
Scientific American Supplement, No. 324, March 18, 1882
Various
Science -- Periodicals
Thus, then, the coloring matter described as chlorophyl by Lankester
has really been mainly derived from that of the endodermal algæ of the
variety _plumosa_, which predominates at Naples; while the anthea-green
of Krukenberg must mainly consist of the green pigment of the ectoderm,
since the Trieste variety evidently does not contain algæ in any great
quantity. But since the Naples variety contains a certain amount of
ordinary green pigment, and since the Trieste variety is tolerably sure
to contain some algæ, both spectroscopists have been operating on a
mixture of two wholly distinct pigments--diatom-yellow and anthea-green.
But what is the physiological relationship of the plants and animal thus
so curiously and intimately associated? Every one knows that all the
colorless cells of a plant share the starch formed by the green
cells; and it seems impossible to doubt that the endoderm cell or the
Radiolarian, which actually incloses the vegetable cell, must similarly
profit by its labors. In other words, when the vegetable cell dissolves
its own starch, some must needs pass out by osmose into the surrounding
animal cell; nor must it be forgotten that the latter possesses
abundance of amylolytic ferment. Then, too, the _Philozoon_ is
subservient in another way to the nutritive function of the animal, for
after its short life it dies and is digested; the yellow bodies supposed
by various observers to be developing cells being nothing but dead algæ
in progress of solution and disappearance.
Again, the animal cell is constantly producing carbonic acid and
nitrogenous waste, but these are the first necessities of life to our
alga, which removes them, so performing an intracellular renal function,
and of course reaping an abundant reward, as its rapid rate of
multiplication shows.
Nor do the services of the _Philozoon_ end here; for during sunlight
it is constantly evolving nascent oxygen directly into the surrounding
animal protoplasm, and thus we have actually foreign chlorophyl
performing the respiratory function of native hæmoglobin! And the
resemblance becomes closer when we bear in mind that hæmoglobin
sometimes lies as a stationary deposit in certain tissues, like the
tongue muscles of certain mollusks, or the nerve cord of _Aphrodite_ and
Nemerteans.
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