Kirkes' Handbook of physiology / revised and rewritten by Charles Wilson Greene.

  • Kirkes, William Senhouse, 1823-1864.
Date:
1910
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Kirkes' Handbook of physiology / revised and rewritten by Charles Wilson Greene. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    •Space contain- ing liquid. Proto])lasm. — Nucleus. Cell wall. Fig. I.—^Vegetable Cells. The presence or absence of a cell wall, therefore, was then regarded as quite a secondary matter, while at the same time the cell substance came gradually to be recognized as of primary importance. Many of the lower forms of animal life, the Rhizopoda, were found to consist almost entirely of matter very similar in appearance and chemical composition to the cell substance of higher forms; and this from its chemical resemblance to flesh was termed Sarcode by Dujardin. When recognized in vegetable cells it was called Protoplasm by Mulder, while Remak applied the same name to the substance of animal cells. As the presumed formative matter in animal tissues it was termed Blastema, and in the belief that, wherever found, it alone of all substances has to do with generation and nutrition, Beale has named it Germinal matter or Bioplasm. Of these terms the one most in use at the present day as we have already said, is protoplasm, and inasmuch as all life, both in the animal and vegetable kingdoms, is associated with proto- plasm, we are justified in describing it, with Huxley, as the physical basis of life, or simply living matter. Properties of Protoplasm.—Protoplasm is a semifluid substance, which absorbs, but does not mix with water. It is transparent and gener- ally colorless, with refractive index higher than that of water, but lower than that of oil. It is neutral or weakly alkaline in reaction, but may under special circumstances be acid, as, for example, after activity. It undergoes heat coagulation at a temperature of about 54. 5° C. (130° F.), and hence no organ- ism can live when its own tem- perature is raised above that point. It is also coagulated and therefore killed by alcohol, by solutions of many of the metallic salts, by strong acids and alkalies, and by many other chemical substances. Under the microscope it is seen almost universally to be granular, the granules consisting of different substances, albuminous, fatty, or carbo- hydrate matter. The granules are not equally distributed throughout the whole cell mass, as they are sometimes absent from the outer part or layer Nucleus or ger- minal vesicle. -- Nucleolus or ger- minal spot. ...Space left by re- traction of yolk. ■ -■ \'itellus of yolk. Vitelline mem- brane. Fig. 2.—Semidiagranimatic Representation of a Human Ovum, showing the parts of an animal tell. (Cadia.)