- doms—i.e., real living beings—we already see less
rigour in the laws governing chemical constitution and cellular organization.
Experiments in merotomy—i.e., in amputation—carried out on the nervous element by Waller, on infusoria by Brandt, Gruber, Balbiani, Nussbaum, and Verworn, show us the necessity of the presence of the cellular body and the nucleus—i.e., of the integrity of the cell. But they also teach us that when that integrity no longer exists death does not immediately follow. A part of the vital functions continues to be performed in denucleated protoplasm, in a cell which is mutilated and incomplete.
Vital Phenomena in Crushed Protoplasm.—It is true also that grinding and crushing suppress the greater part of the functions of the cell. But tests with pulps of various organs and with those of certain yeasts also show that protoplasm, even though ground and disorganized, cannot be considered as inert, and that it still exhibits many of its characteristic phenomena; for example, the production of diastases, the specific agents of vital chemistry. Finally, while we do not know enough about the actions of which the secondary elements of protoplasm—its granulations, its filaments—are capable, which this or that method of destruction may bring to light, at least we know that actions of this kind exist.
To sum up, we are far from being able to deny that rudimentary, isolated vital acts may be produced by the various bodies that result from the dismemberment of protoplasm. The integrity of the cellular organization, even the integrity of protoplasm itself, are therefore not indispensable for these partial manifestations of vitality.
