structure and floated freely in the water. (Vesicles are here defined as “small bladders, cavi-
ties, sacs, cysts, bubbles or hollow structures.”) Often the vesicles would collect together and
float around in clumps, initially without any clearly defined borders or membranes.
Reich also described the process in which a clear border or margin developed:I observed the change taking place in both the vesicular structure and the
formation of a border in one object over a period of four hours. An irregularly
structured, boundaryless, vesicular object had formed at the margin of a piece of
plant. The object gradually swelled and detached itself from the section of plant.
Double refracting margins appeared on the edges. The vesicular structure became
moreregular and homogeneous and the vesicles refracted light with greater con-
trast. In its structure the object was almost indistinguishable from a passing amoe-
ba. It assumed a long oval shape and became increasingly taut as the margin became
more complete and distinct^3.In another instance, Reich saw a formation that showed both the vesicular struc-
ture and the well-defined margin. It adhered to a stalk on the grass infusion. Occasionally,
the cluster of vesicles would try to jerk away, only to be pulled back by the stalk.
Since Reich wanted to observe developments within the grass continuously, he uti-
lized time-lapse photography, a procedure now quite common, but rarely used in the 1930s.
He had to solve a series of technical problems, one of them being the requirement of a
completely still preparation for the purposes of photography versus the need for oxygen to
prevent the dying off of any germinating forms.
One cannot overstress the significance of his continuous observation. Around the
middle of the nineteenth century, Louis Pasteur had demonstrated that the kinds of living
forms the upholders of spontaneous generation affirmed did not occur when the nonliving
matter,the water in which it was immersed, and the surrounding air were all sterilized. Since
Pasteur,biologists have been in total agreement that protozoa develop from spores in the
air that settle in the grass. Over time, in interaction with the grass infusion, these spores or
germ cysts become protozoa. Whether this explanation is valid or whether Reich’s concep-
tual scheme is correct (namely, that the protozoa develop not from spores but from the dis-
integrating grass infusion alone), the initial point is that no one since Pasteur had carefully
described developments within the grass infusion from which protozoa eventually emerged.
To quote Reich: “They say nothing about what takes placein the grass or moss. They simply
state that after a few days the protozoa are ‘there.’ ”^4
The study of grass infusions revealed various kinds of motility, which he first
observed,then photographed. In particular, Reich distinguished four separate types:^5
ROLLING—Individual vesicles within the clump of particles rolled rhythmi-
cally toward and away from each other, as though showing attraction and repulsion.208 Myron SharafFury On Earth