Spiral swimming is supposed to be due to an automatic regulating mechanism which is present in all moving organisms. It is held to be a spatial aspect of the physical processes originating and controlling movement. The property of moving automatically in an orderly path is inherent in organisms in the same way, e.g., as the property of growth is. A spiral path will be followed whenever an organism is free to move, that is, when not disturbed by sensory stimulation. Slight stimulation is often without effect. The justification of supposing that probably all moving organisms are within the grip of the spiral urge is found in the fact that the amebas, ciliates, flagellates, swarm spores, zoöspores, Oscillatoria, diatoms, rotifers, larvae of worms, molluscs and echinoderms, oligochaets, copepods, as well as man, all move in regular smooth spirals of one kind or another when free from strong stimulation, and that no organism that is free to move as these are, moves in a straight or irregular path.
The observations indicate that the same type of mechanism that controls the direction of the path of an organism also unifies and coördinates the streaming of the protoplasm of the ameba, the action of the cilia of the paramecium, or the contraction of the muscles of man, as the case may be. Why the automatic mechanism controlling the direction of movement should produce a helical spiral in paramecium, a wavy path or flattened spiral in ameba, and a series of spirals in man, is not yet subject to profitable discussion, except of course to point out that paramecium is not restricted to two dimensions of space as is ameba and man. In the nature of the case there can be no question but that the mechanism is one that attaches to the fundamental structure of protoplasm rather than to the gross morphology. As a mathematical question, however, the circles occurring in the path of an ameba in low temperature may serve to connect up the flattened spiral path of the ameba under optimum conditions with the circular path often observed in man.
The movement of the ameba thus becomes related to crawling euglenas, Oscillatoria filaments, diatoms, and perhaps Gregarinidas, because of the movements of its surface layer; to leucocytes, streaming protoplasm in the higher plant cells, etc., because of its streaming endoplasm; and to the locomotory movements of all organisms because of the wavy character of its path, which betrays the activity of an automatic regulating mechanism, a type of which is held to be present in every moving organism.
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