Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-03-22
CELLS OF SPONGE,
CUT APART, REJO|N
IN NEW animal
DR.. GaItShoff Describes Phe-
nomenon of Resurrection
in Academy Lecture.
ORGANISMS ARE REVIVED
IN SALT SOLUTION
Result Seems to Reopen Old Cues
ton of Vitalism and Mechanism
in Process of Life.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.


| with spongeS was described before the
| Washington Academy of Sciences by
DR.. Paul H. GaltShoff of the Bureau of
| Fisheries.
The work, DR.. Galtshoff explained,
may shed light on some of the most
fundamental problems of the nature of
living organisms.
| The sponges, 1t was explained, are
living organisms distinctly on the an
imal side of the line, and they appear
specifically to be very loosely organized
collections Of cells, apparently lacking
a central nervous system.
| In the experiments sponge is cut
up into its separate cells, the units of
protoplasm making up the body struc-
ture of both animals and plants. These
are comparatively large in the sponge,
so that they can be separated with COM
| parative ease.
Then the disjoined cells are mixed
up and placed in solution Of sea
water. After about two weeks 1t is
found that the cells have rejoined and
redistributed themselves into another
complete animal, every cell in its right
place. There has been literally resur-
rection of an extremely complicated in
dividual out OF its units Of living matter.
Seven Distinct Types Of Cells.
This is the more remarkable, DR..
Galtshoff explained, because the sponge
is not so simple a creature as it seems.
| Seven distinct types of cells enter into
the makeup of an individual, such as
the cell bodies with flagellae or fibrouS
arms, which form the outside layer of
the sponge and sweep food particles
from the water into the canals which
run through the body; the unfiagellated
cells which line the canals. and the
cells which produce the skeleton ma
terial of various varieties. The sponge
Is far from an undifferentiated accumu-
lation of cells.
DR.. Galtshof described watching his
resurrection process from hour to hour
| under the microscope. When first
placed In the sea water the cells start
| to move around with comparative ra-
pidity and when two happen to collide
they remain together, gradually pick
ing up more recruits by collision until
after few hours the chaos has been
resolved into four or five masses of
| cells. Then these move about very
| slowly, but eventually come together
into a single mass in which. at first,
| the separate cells are not distributed
according to their function. From
| then on the process proceeds very slow
| ly, the cells apparently migrating in
| the mass itself until finally they are
distributed just as they were before the
sponge was cut up. Every cell seems
to know its place in the organism and
| seek 1t out.
Moreover, DR.. Galtshof said the cells
| cannot be tricked into an unnatural
| combination. When cells of two va
rieties, one colored red and the other
| brown, are mixed together in the same
solution, each variety win join only
with mates of its own kind, so that
Co., I1xy 70 sVN&f
formed. Under the microscope it Is seen
that when a red and brown cell meet
each other they seem to repel instead
of attract.
Reopens Question OF Vitalism.
This result, DR.. Galtshoff said, seems
| to reopen the old question of Vttal1Sm
| and mechanism in the fundamental re-
actions of matter which constitute the
processes of life. Specifically, at least,
| it seems as If an outside intelligence
was directing the orderly Encouragement
| of the destroyed individual, or that
there was some mystical consciousness
of position in each cell body. On the
other hand, he pointed out, the result
I can be ued by those upholding mech
anistic philosophy of life in so far
as the behavior of the cells can be
shown to depend on physical and chem
lcal properties OF Lu6ulSeIVeS anu IAS
surrounding medium.
The latter view, he said, is upheld by
covering with grease the bottom of the
sea water container over which the cells
must move, for they sink to the bottom
| by the force of gravity and spread them
selves out very thin before they start
| to combine. When this is done the cells
do not come together. The "resurrec-
ton phenomena" seems to depend on
smooth, hard surface for the cells to
move upon. Furthermore, he pointed
out, the fact that cells formed for one
| function, such as producing skeletal
material, seem to find each other out
may indicate a complex chemical affinity
| between them, SO that the seemingly
| miraculous can be explained as an
| intricate chemical process.
The experiments also reopen the old
| question, he said, as to whether the
complex living organism, from sponge
| to man, is fundamentally an enormous
state" of hundreds of millions of In
dividual citizens combined for mutual
benefit, with specialization Of labor and
| function, just like the citizens OF a
political organism. Going back to
| microscopic forms of life, there are
found a multitude of animal organisms
the protozoa, which never have more
than a single cell, which looks very
j
sponge. These one-celled organisms
multiply by simply swelling and split
ting in two, each half becoming new
| individual. The body cells behave in
the same way, growth being a process
Of the distension and division of cells.
Two Schools Of Thought.
Under the theory that the most COM
pick organisms are enormous accumula-
lions of protozoa-like individuals, DR..
Galsthof explained, biological evolution
would have been process of constantly
finer and finer specialization of the
function of individuals within the
| group, such as brain cells, epidermal
cells and blood cells. Another school of
biologists, he said, holds that the pro-
tozoa are not actually individual cells
and that the apparent similarity is
superficial. This school holds that the
| organism aS-a-whole," man or sponge,
comes first and that the differentiation
OF the cells for their distinct functions
follows. 1t is the old argument of which
comes first, the hen or the egg, into
which the sponge experiments are in
truding. Under the second theory the
individual cell presumably would be
functionless thing without the pattern
10 mt into which 1t was created.
! Apparently the behavior Of the
weight to the "cell-state" theory. since
they show the capacity of the units
I OF protoplasm to act as individuals
when cut out of the pattern in which
they were created. The resurrection
individual is brought about by the COM
bination of smaller individuals rather
than by the splitting up of q whole nto