The Wonders of Life: A Popular Study of Biological PhilosophyHaeckel, Ernst
Philosophy
The Wonders of Life: A Popular Study of Biological Philosophy
Haeckel, Ernst
Biology; Evolution (Biology); Life -- Origin
By far the greater part of the plasm that comes under investigation as
active living matter in organisms is metaplasm, or secondary plasm,
the originally homogeneous substance of which has acquired definite
structures by phyletic differentiations in the course of millions
of years. To this modified plasm we must oppose the original simple
primary plasm, from the modification of which it has arisen. The name
"protoplasm," in the narrower sense, could very properly be retained
for this originally homogeneous form of structureless plasm; but, as
the term has now almost lost definite meaning and is used in many
different senses, it is, perhaps, better to call this pure homogeneous
primary plasm _archiplasm_. It is still found--firstly, in the body of
many (but not all) of the monera, part of the chromacea and bacteria,
and the protamœba and protogenes; and, secondly, in the body of many
very young protists and tissue-cells. In the latter case, however,
there is already a chemical differentiation of the inner caryoplasm and
outer cytoplasm. When we examine these young cells under a high power
of the microscope, with the aid of the modern coloring methods, their
protoplasm seems to be perfectly homogeneous and structureless, or, at
the most, there are merely very fine granules regularly distributed in
it which are believed to be products of metabolism. This is best seen
in many of the rhizopods, especially the amœbæ, thalamophora, and
mycetozoa. There are large amœbæ, which thrust out strongly mobile
feet from their unicellular body, broad, flaplike processes of the
naked cell body which constantly change their form, size, and place.
If they are killed and examined with the aid of the best methods of
coloring, it is quite impossible to detect any structure in them; and
this is also true of the pseudopodia of the mycetozoa and many other
rhizopods. Moreover, the slow flowing movement of the fluid protoplasm
shows clearly that there cannot be any composition out of fine fixed
elements in the body. This is particularly clear in those amœbæ
and mycetozoa in which a hyaline, firm, and non-granulated skin-layer
(hyaloplasm) is more or less separated from a dark, softer, and
granulated marrow-layer (polioplasm); as both of them are viscous and
pass into each other without sharp limits, there cannot be any constant
and fixed structural features in them.
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