enchyleman.
/ɛnkɪˈliːmə/ Biology.
In some old theories of the structure of cytoplasm: (a) a clear liquid supposed to constitute the ground-substance of a cell nucleus and to contain a fibrillar network; (b) a liquid supposed to exist in the form of ‘alveolar spheres’ in a continuous, usually more viscous liquid.
ΚΠ
1886 Science 8 125/1 This basal substance, enchylema, is probably more or less nearly fluid during life.
1888 G. Rolleston & W. H. Jackson Forms Animal Life (ed. 2) p. xxi Protoplasm..appears sometimes to be structureless, but as a rule it is more or less vesicular, consisting of a denser substance (mitome) enclosing droplets of a more fluid character (enchylema, paramitome).
1896 E. B. Wilson Cell i. 17 According to the view most widely held, one of its [sc. protoplasm's] essential features is the presence of two constituents, one of which, the ground-substance, cytolymph, or enchylema, is more liquid, while the other, the spongioplasm or reticulum, is of a firmer consistency, and forms a sponge-like network.
1902 Encycl. Brit. XXXII. 41/2 A framework distinct from granules and enchylema.
1940 L. H. Hyman Invertebrates I. i. 2 The spumoid or alveolar theory [of protoplasm], developed by Bütschli, and widely accepted, even today, states that protoplasm is composed of spheres, the alveoli, filled with a clear fluid, the hyaloplasm or enchylema, and suspended in a continuous interalveolar substance.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1933; most recently modified version published online June 2018).
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n.1886