V 



REGENERATION AND DEATH 



L 



A DIES AND GENTLEMEN: In the last 

 lecture I treated the conception I had formed 

 of the processes of regeneration and told you that I 

 looked upon the change which occurred first in the 

 developing germ as one of rejuvenation. The process 

 has for its technical name the segmentation of the 

 ovum. The appearance of the segmentation process 

 was illustrated to you by the pictures thrown upon 

 the screen. Cytomorphosis is a term which we 

 have frequently used in the course of these lectures, 

 and I have led you, I hope, to the appreciation of the 

 idea that in cytomorphosis we have at least a part of 

 the explanation of old age. We have learned that 

 the young cells, which are produced by the segmenta- 

 tion of the ovum, are in large part changed into old 

 cells, and also that old cells cannot go back in their 

 development and again become young l ; so that 



1 Pathologists are familiar with a phenomenon which at first thought might 

 be held to invalidate this assertion. I refer to the growth power of connective 

 tissue cells under certain abnormal conditions. I think this must be interpreted 

 as a case of cellular regeneration effected by undifferentiated protoplasm, left 

 over in each cell after a part of the protoplasm has been changed into fibrils, 

 matrix, etc. In brief, the process involved is similar to that in the regeneration 

 of striated muscles, described later in this lecture. 



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