I take it therefore, that the cylindrical cell of Spirogyra, or any other cylindrical cell which grows in freedom from any manifest external restraint, has assumed that particular form simply by reason of the molecular constitution of its developing surface-membrane; and that this molecular constitution was anisotropous, in such a way as to render extension easier in one direction than another.
Such a lack of homogeneity or of isotropy, in the cell-wall is often rendered visible, especially in plant-cells, in various ways, in the form of concentric lamellae, annular and spiral striations, and the like.
But this phenomenon, while it brings about a certain departure from complete symmetry, is still compatible with, and coexistent with, many of the phenomena which we have seen to be associated with surface-tension. The symmetry of tensions still leaves the cell a solid of revolution, and its surface is still a surface of equilibrium. The fluid pressure within the cylinder still causes the film or membrane which caps its ends to be of a spherical form. And in the young cell, where the surface pellicle is absent or but little differentiated, as for instance in the oögonium of Achlya, or in the young zygospore of Spirogyra, we always see the tendency of the entire structure towards a spherical form reasserting itself: unless, as in the latter case, it be overcome by direct compression within the cylindrical mother-cell. Moreover, in those cases where the adult filament consists of cylindrical cells, we see that the young, germinating spore, at first spherical, very soon assumes with growth an elliptical or ovoid form: the direct result of an incipient anisotropy of its envelope, which when more developed will convert the ovoid into a cylinder. We may also notice that a truly cylindrical cell is comparatively rare; for in most cases, what we call a cylindrical cell shews a distinct bulging of its sides; it is not truly a cylinder, but a portion of a spheroid or ellipsoid. {245}
Unicellular organisms in general, including the protozoa, the unicellular cryptogams, the various bacteria, and the free, isolated cells, spores, ova, etc. of higher organisms, are referable for the most part to a very small number of typical forms; but besides a certain number of others which may be so referable, though obscurely, there are obviously many others in which either no symmetry is to be recognized, or in which the form is clearly not one of equilibrium. Among these latter we have Amoeba itself, and all manner of amoeboid organisms, and also many curiously shaped cells, such as the Trypanosomes and various other aberrant Infusoria. We shall return to the consideration of these; but in the meanwhile it will suffice to say that, as their surfaces are not equilibrium-surfaces, so neither are the living cells themselves in any stable equilibrium. On the contrary, they are in continual flux and movement, each portion of the surface constantly changing its form, and passing from one phase to another of an equilibrium which is never stable for more than a moment. The former class, which rest in stable equilibrium, must fall (as we have seen) into two classes,—those whose equilibrium arises from liquid surface-tension alone, and those in whose conformation some other pressure or restraint has been superimposed upon ordinary surface-tension.
To the fact that these little organisms belong to an order of magnitude in which form is mainly, if not wholly, conditioned and controlled by molecular forces, is due the limited range of forms which they actually exhibit. These forms vary according to varying physical conditions. Sometimes they do so in so regular and orderly a way that we instinctively explain them merely as “phases of a life-history,” and leave physical properties and physical causation alone: but many of their variations of form we treat as exceptional, abnormal, decadent or morbid, and are apt to pass these over in neglect, while we give our attention to what we suppose to be the typical or “characteristic” form or attitude. In the case of the smallest organisms, the bacteria, micrococci, and so forth, the range of form is especially limited, owing to their minuteness, the powerful pressure which their highly curved surfaces exert, and the comparatively homogeneous nature of their substance. But within their narrow range of possible diversity {246} these minute organisms are protean in their changes of form. A certain species will not only change its shape from stage to stage of its little “cycle” of life; but it will be remarkably different in outward form according to the circumstances under which we find it, or the histological treatment to which we submit it. Hence the pathological student, commencing the study of bacteriology, is early warned to pay little heed to differences of form, for purposes of recognition or specific identification. Whatever grounds we may have for attributing to these organisms a permanent or stable specific identity (after the fashion of the higher plants and animals), we can seldom safely do so on the ground of definite and always recognisable form: we may
| Fig. 73. A flagellate “monad,” Distigma proteus, Ehr. (After Saville Kent.) | Fig. 74. Noctiluca miliaris. |
often be inclined, in short, to ascribe to them a physiological (sometimes a “pathogenic”), rather than a morphological specificity.
Among the Infusoria, we have a small number of forms whose symmetry is distinctly spherical, for instance among the small flagellate monads; but even these are seldom actually spherical except when we see them in a non-flagellate and more or less encysted or “resting” stage. In this condition, it need hardly be remarked that the spherical form is common and general among a great variety of unicellular organisms. When our little monad developes a flagellum, that is in itself an indication of “polarity” or symmetrical non-homogeneity of the cell; and accordingly, we {247} usually see signs of an unequal tension of the membrane in the neighbourhood of the base of the flagellum. Here the tension is usually less than elsewhere, and the radius of curvature is accordingly less: in other words that end of the cell is drawn out to a tapering point (Fig. [73]). But sometimes it is the other way, as in Noctiluca, where the large flagellum springs from a depression in the otherwise uniformly rounded cell. In this case the explanation seems to lie in the many strands of radiating protoplasm which converge upon this point, and may be supposed to keep it relatively fixed by their viscosity, while the rest of the cell-surface is free to expand (Fig. [74]).