be prevented by their narrow quarters from assuming the complete spherical form; and in between these spheres, we have more or less regularly alternate ones, of smaller size28. Similar, but less regular, beads or droplets may be caused to appear, under stimulation by an alternating current, in the protoplasmic threads within the living cells of the hairs of Tradescantia. The explanation usually given is, that the viscosity of the protoplasm is reduced, or its fluidity increased; but an increase of the surface tension would seem a more likely reasonÿ£¢29.
We may take note here of a remarkable series of phenomena, which, though they seem at first sight to be of a very different order, are closely related to the phenomena which attend and which bring about the breaking-up of a liquid cylinder or thread.
In some of Mr Worthingtonãs most beautiful experiments on {236} splashes, it was found that the fall of a round pebble into water from a considerable height, caused the rise of a filmy sheet of water in the form of a cup or cylinder; and the edge of this cylindrical film tended to be cut up into alternate lobes and notches, and the prominent lobes or ãjetsã tended, in more extreme cases, to break off or to break up into spherical beads (Fig. 70)30. A precisely similar appearance is seen, on a great scale, in the thin edge of a breaking wave: when the smooth cylindrical edge, at a given moment, shoots out an array of tiny jets