THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 233 



these, may aggregate, as a result of which after 

 certain mysterious changes, or more or less 

 directly, there may originate a new-formed ele- 

 ment, reproductive or other. As instances of 

 this process --for which we propose the name 

 Biocrasis l we may cite the mode of formation 

 of ova in Ncmatolds and in many other animals, 

 of the spore in Vaucberla^ and of the so-called 

 c gonidial cell' in Nitella. 

 3. New units mav arise, without obvious differentia- 



\.f 4 * 



tion of pre-existing living matter, by the well- 

 known processes of fission or gemmation. Or 

 again, new units may arise owing to actually 

 existing living matter undergoing a process of 

 differentiation, followed by a simultaneous divi- 

 sion into few or many separate living things- 

 by a method, in fact, such as we see occurring in 

 the reproduction of Protomyxa or Achlya 2 . All 

 such modes of formation of living units we pro- 

 pose to comprise under the term Biodiseresis 3 . 



1 From /3tos, ' life,' and Kpacris, ' fusion.' We are at present speaking 

 only of the origin of independent units in pre-existing organisms ; and 

 therefore we only incidentally call attention to the most typical instance 

 of this process, viz. the fusion of two originally distinct Amoeba into 

 a single individual. 



2 In the process of organization of pericardial lymph, otherwise 

 similar, the new-formed units do not separate from one another, and 

 are therefore somewhat less independent. The mode of origin of the 

 reproductive units in Achlya and Protomyxa leads us on almost insensibly 

 to the process of Biocanosis the products of the molecular re arrange- 

 ment are here multiple instead of single. 



3 From 0ios, 'life,' and oiaipeffis, 'division.' 



