54 THE MULTIPLICATION OF INDIVIDUALS 



CHAPTER III. 



THE OLD APHORISM, " OMNE VIVUM EX OVO," NOT STRICTLY CORRECT. THE ORIGIN 

 OF INDIVIDUALS BY BUDDING AND SELF -DIVISION. 



HAVING thus shown to you that there are among adult ani- 

 mals those which are as simple as the lowest forms of eggs, and 

 that eggs are merely one stage, and that the earliest, of animal 

 life ; and having demonstrated that the so-called egg is left more 

 or less dependent upon physical causes for its growth, in some 

 cases almost altogether independent of the influence of the par- 

 ent, and consequently in like proportion dependent upon phys- 

 ical agency for its growth, there seems to be but one step left to 

 bring us to that condition of things under which the animal-egg 

 may arise altogether independent of a parent ! 



This idea may seem at first startling and unnatural, so accus- 

 tomed are we to look upon all animals as direct developments 

 from maternal parents. Yet there are numerous instances, 

 well known, and acknowledged as such, by all naturalists, of in- 

 dividuals which originate in such a way that they may be truly 

 said never to have been born ; that is, they have never passed 

 through or existed in an egg-state or condition. 



Now, in order that this may not seem to be an incidental 

 assertion, but that it shall appear to you in its true light, which 

 is, that an individual is not always derived directly from a pre- 

 liminary egg-phase, I shall illustrate the phenomena by a pretty 

 full description of the various modes of reproduction otherwise 

 than those which take place through the means of ovarian ges- 

 tation. 



There are, in the first place, two apparently well-marked kinds 

 of individuals which originate by budding: the one is an in- 

 dividual in the truest sense, a complete, independent organ- 

 ization, and the other is as fully complete in all its parts, 



