GERM-CELL CONTAINS NO SKELETON. 59 



"appears to meet all the requirements of modern 

 science.' (Encyc. Brit. (9 ed.) 8, p. 746.) 



"In all cases," he says, "the process of evolution 

 [growth] consists in a succession of changes of the 

 form, structure and functions of the germ [fertilized 

 ovum], by which it passes, step by step, from an ex- 

 treme simplicity, or relative homogeneity, of visible 

 structure to a greater or less degree of complexity or 

 heterogeneity; and the course of progressive differen- 

 tiation is usually accompanied by growth, which is 

 effected by intussusception.' (Encyc. Brit. 8, p. 746.) 



Huxley is surely mistaken in saying that "the 

 process of evolution [development and growth] con- 

 sists in a succession of changes in the form, structure 

 and functions of the germ,' for the germ (fertilized 

 ovum) immediately divides into two daughter-cells, 

 these into four, these into eight, sixteen and so on to 

 infinity. Thus, it appears that germ (germ-cell) be- 

 comes ' * a drop in the sea, ' ' its identity being wholly 

 lost. Huxley states this fact, in substance, in the 

 quotation below. 



"The substance,' he says, "by the addition of 

 which the germ is enlarged is in no case, simply ab- 

 sorbed ready-made form the not-living world, and 

 packed between the elementary constituents of the 

 germ. ***** The new material is, in a great 

 measure, not only absorbed but assimilated, so that 

 it become part and parcel of the molecular structure 

 of the living body into which it enters. And so far 

 from the fully developed organism's being simply the 

 germ plus the nutriment which it has absorbed, it is 

 probable that the adult contains neither in form, nor 



