72 THE PSYCHIC LIFE 



most negative part in the act of fecundation. It as- 

 sumes irregular outlines and becomes rumpled, while 

 its contents collect in detached masses of various sizes: 

 it grows clear by degrees and is finally absorbed. It 

 disappears, accordingly, by a phenomenon of regres- 

 sion and without dividing. 



Fecundation aims to replace this wasted element 

 by a nucleus of fresh formation. The latter is pro- 

 duced at the cost of the little body we have described 

 by the name of attendant nucleus or latent nucleus. 

 The attendant nucleus does not act in making up a 

 main nucleus in the cellule of which it is a part; it 

 finds its way into the body of the other animal and it 

 is in this new cellule that it is destined to perform the 

 function of a nucleus. 



In the Chilodon cucullulus, the attendant nucleus 

 divides into two striated capsules, never more. These 

 two capsules grow to unequal sizes; the largest attains 

 a size of forty thousandths of a millimetre; it is this 

 one that forms the new nucleus of the Chilodon. The 

 second capsule shrinks and becomes compressed; it 

 takes its place beside the first one and constitutes the 

 new attendant nucleus. 



To the study of this type of fecundation we may 

 limit our attention; it is the simplest of all, and other 

 forms may be comprehended within it without much 

 difficulty. What complicates the process in the other 

 species is principally the successive modifications 

 through which the old nucleus passes before suffering 

 absorption. In the Stentor cceriileusi\\e, nucleus has 

 the shape of a long chaplet or string of beads; at the 

 moment of fecundation the beads of the chaplet break 

 apart and spread in the protoplasm where they finally 

 become absorbed. Among the Paramaecia the phe- 



