11. _Individuality of the Radiolaria._--Like other Protozoa the Radiolaria are unicellular organisms, the whole fully developed organisation of which falls under the category of a single cell, both morphologically and physiologically. Since this view is based upon the composition of the individual body out of two different morphological elements, nucleus and protoplasm, it is at once justified in the case of the majority of Radiolaria, in which the plasmatic body encloses only a single nucleus (the so-called "Binnen-Bläschen"); such is the case in all the SPUMELLARIA monozoa, NASSELLARIA and PHÆODARIA. This aspect of the case might appear doubtful in those Radiolaria in which the simple primary cell-nucleus divides early into numerous small secondary nuclei, as is the case in the SPUMELLARIA polyzoa and most ACANTHARIA. Strictly speaking, the multinucleate central capsule should in such cases be regarded as a syncytium; but since the individual unity of the unicellular organism is as clearly defined in these precocious multinuclear Radiolaria as in the ordinary serotinous forms, the former must be considered unicellular Rhizopods just as are the latter. This mode of regarding { vi}the case is the more necessary, inasmuch as the early division of the nucleus has no further influence upon the organisation. Just as in many other classes of the Protista there are monozootic (solitary) and polyzootic (social) forms, so also in the Radiolaria there are in addition to the ordinary monozootic or monobious forms certain families in which colonies or coenobia are formed by the association of individuals; this distinction may be expressed by the terms "Monocyttaria" and "Polycyttaria."
The unicellular nature of the Radiolaria was first established by Richard Hertwig in 1879 (L. N. 33),[1] and brought into conformity with our present histiological knowledge and the new reform of the cell-theory. Huxley, however, who was in 1851 the first to examine living Radiolaria accurately, declared _Thalassicolla nucleata_ to be a unicellular Protozoon, and the individual central capsules of _Sphærozoum punctatum_ to be cells, but, owing to the then condition of the cell-theory, he was unable to give a conclusive demonstration of this view. Later, when Johannes Müller in 1858 and myself in 1862 recognised the peculiar "yellow cells" which occur in large numbers in many Radiolaria as true nucleated cells, it appeared impossible any longer to maintain the unicellular nature of the Radiolaria; also the great complication which I showed to exist in the structure of _Thalassicolla_ appeared to contradict it. Only after Cienkowski (1871) and Brandt (1881) had shown that the "yellow cells" do not belong to the Radiolarian organism, but are symbiotic unicellular algæ, was it possible to revive and demonstrate anew the unicellular nature of the Radiolaria.