The Rate of the Protoplasmic Flow in the Myxomycete Plasmodium. II

Abstract

Two special methods have made it possible to represent in an undulating curve the relation between the rate of flow and time. The maximum velocity of the streaming changes in each rhythm, sometimes exceeding 1 mm/sec at optimum temperature. In one of the instances mentioned in the present report, the maximum speed reached 1.35 mm/sec, which is the greatest velocity of protoplasmic flow ever recorded. The patterns of the curves representing the rise and fall of the streaming rate in relation to time are all different according not only to the material used but also to the time of measurement in one and the same material. The general characteristics of these velocity curves show close parallelism with those of the motive force or dynamoplasmograms, though the former involve more complex factors than the latter. The pronounced changes in the wave form and amplitude are most satisfactorily understood from the standpoint of intraplasmic interfference advanced by the author on the basis of the analysis of the motive force curve.