diaphane, insoluble dans l'eau, se contractant en masses globuleuses, s'attachant aux aiguilles de dissection, et se laissant étirer comme du mucus, enfin se trouvant dans tous les animaux inférieurs interposée aux autres éléments de structure.” To the French naturalist belongs, therefore, the real credit of the discovery of protoplasm, or rather, to be more accurate, of the first recognition of its true nature as the material basis of vital phenomena. Neither Dujardin nor von Mohl, however, had any conception of the universal occurrence and fundamental similarity of protoplasm in all living things, whether animal or vegetable, and it was not till 1861 that the identity of animal sarcode and vegetable protoplasm was proclaimed by Max Schultze, whose name stands out as the framer, if not the founder, of the modern notions concerning the nature of the living substance. From this time onwards the term “protoplasm” was used for the living substance of all classes of organisms, although it would have been more in accordance with the custom of priority in nomenclature to have made use of Dujardin's term “sarcode.”
A living organism, of any kind whatsoever, may be regarded as composed of (1) protoplasm, (2) substances or structures produced by the protoplasm, either by differentiation or modification of the protoplasm itself, or by the excretory or secretory activity of the living substance. The protoplasm of a given organism may be in a single individual mass, or may be aggregated into a number of masses or units, discontinuous but not disconnected, termed cells (see Cytology). Thus living organisms may be distinguished, in a general way, as unicellular or multicellular. An instance of a unicellular organism is well seen in an Amoeba, or in one of the Foraminifera, classic examples for the study of undifferentiated protoplasm, which here composes the greater part of the body, while products of the formative activity of the protoplasm are seen in the external shell and in various internal granules and structures. As an example of a multicellular organism we may take the human body, built up of an immense number of living cells which produce, singly or in co-operation, a variety of substances and structures, each contributing to the functions of the body. This, without attempting to enter into details, the horny epidermis covering the body, the hairs, nails, teeth, skeleton, connective tissue, &c., are all of them products formed by the metabolic activity of the living substance and existing in intimate connexion with it, though not themselves to be regarded as living. In addition to metabolic products of this kind, special modifications of the living substance itself are connected with specializations or exaggerations, as it were, of a particular vital function; such are the contractile substance of muscular tissue, and the various mechanisms seen in nervous and sensory tissue. It is necessary, therefore, in a living body of any kind, to distinguish clearly between simple protoplasm, its differentiations and its products.
Protoplasm from whatever source, whether studied in a cell of the human body, in an Amoeba or Foraminifer, or in a vegetable organism, is essentially uniform and similar in appearance and properties. Its appearance, graphically described by Dujardin in the passage quoted above, is that of a greyish, viscid, slimy, semi-transparent and semi-fluid substance. Its properties are those of living things generally, and the most salient and obvious manifestation of life is the power of automatic movement exhibited by living protoplasm. When free and not limited by firm envelopes, the movements take the character known generally as amoeboid, well shown in the common Amoeba or in the white corpuscles of the blood. When confined by rigid envelopes, as in plant-cells, the protoplasm exhibits streaming movements of various kinds. Even more essentially characteristic of the living matter than the power of movement is the property of metabolism—that is to say, the capacity of assimilating substances different from itself, of building them up into its own substance (anabolism), and of again decomposing these complex molecules into simpler ones (katabolism) with production of energy in the form of heat, movement and electrical phenomena. An important part of the metabolic process is respiration, i.e. the absorption of oxygen from the surrounding medium and oxidation of carbon atoms to form carbonic acid gas and other simple chemical compounds; in ordinary plant and animal protoplasm the process of respiration seems to be of universal occurrence, but some Bacteria constitute apparently an exception to the rule. Metabolism results not only in the generation of energy, but also, if anabolism be in excess of katabolism, in increase of bulk, and consequent growth and reproduction.
Living protoplasm is, therefore, considered from a chemical standpoint, in a state of continual flux and instability, and it follows that if protoplasm be a definite chemical substance or mixture of substances (see below), a given sample of protoplasm cannot be pure, or at least cannot remain so for any length of time so long as its power of metabolism is being exerted, but will contain particles either about to be built up by anabolism into its substance, or resulting from katabolic disintegration of its complex molecules. Hence it is convenient to distinguish the living substance from its metaplastic products of anabolism and katabolism. Such products are to be recognized invariably in protoplasm and take the form generally of granules and vacuoles. Granules vary in size from very minute to relatively large, coarse grains of matter, usually of a firm and solid nature. To the presence of innumerable granules is due the greyish, semi-transparent appearance of protoplasm, which in parts free from granules appears hyaline and transparent. Different samples of protoplasm may vary greatly in the number and coarseness of the granulations. Vacuoles are fluid drops of more watery consistence, which, when relatively small, assume a spherical form, as the result of surface tension acting upon a drop of fluid suspended in another fluid. When vacuoles are numerous and large, however, they may assume various forms from mutual pressure, like air-bubbles in a foam. A good example of frothy protoplasm, due to the presence of numerous vacuoles, is seen in the common “sun-animalcule” (Actinosphaerium). Or when the cell is confined by an envelope, and becomes very vacuolated, the vacuoles may become confluent to form a cell-sap contained in a protoplasmic lining or “primordial utricle,” and traversed by strands of protoplasm, as in the ordinary cells of plant-tissues. In many unicellular organisms, so-called contractile vacuoles are continually being formed as an act of excretion and expelled from the body when they reach a certain size.
While the majority of protoplasmic granules are probably to be regarded as metaplastic in nature, there is one class of granulation's of which this is certainly not true, namely the grains of chromatin, so named from their peculiar affinity for certain dyes, such as carmine, logwood and various aniline stains. These grains may occur as chromidia, scattered through the protoplasm, or they may be concentrated at one or more spots to form a definite nucleus or nuclei, which may or may not be limited from the remaining protoplasm by a definite membrane, and may undergo further differentiations of structure which cannot be considered further here (see Cytology). The protoplasm of an ordinary cell is thus specialized into nucleus and cytoplasm. It was formerly thought that the most primitive forms of life, the Monera of E. Haeckel, consisted of pure protoplasm without a nucleus. It must be borne in mind, however, that chromatin can be present without being concentrated to form a definite nucleus, and that with imperfect technique the chromatin may easily escape observation. It seems justifiable at present to believe, until the contrary has been proved, that all organisms, however primitive, contain chromatin in some form: first, because this substance has always been found when suitable methods for its detection have been employed; secondly, because it has been shown experimentally, by cutting up small organisms, such as Amoeba, that nucleated fragments of protoplasm are unable to maintain their continued existence as living bodies; and, thirdly, because modern research has shown the chromatin to be of very great, perhaps fundamental, importance in regulating the vital processes of the cell and so determining the specific characters of the organism, a property which enables the chromatin to act
