THE PRESENT POSITION OF CELL-THEORY. 119 



are even at a loss to know to what to apply it ; its connota- 

 tion has never even been attempted. The futility of using a 

 term without connotation and with the most vague denotation 

 is so well illustrated by the following passage from Whit- 

 man that I cannot refrain from introducing it here : " When 

 we speak of the organisation of the germ as cut directly 

 from a pre-existing parental organisation of the same kind 

 we are not thinking of the definitive organisation which 

 belongs to the fully formed organism, but of that primary 

 organisation which belongs to the protoplasm itself". This 

 raises our expectations, we are going to hear something of 

 the primary organisation which belongs to protoplasm itself. 

 Whitman continues: "We are so accustomed to connect 

 the idea of organisation with the anatomical organs of the 

 adult that we are apt to forget that there is a primary 

 organisation which underlies every anatomical organ. The 

 germ has this primary organisation ; it is therefore an 

 organism, and as such may dominate its own development." 

 From which weighty and sententious passage we gather 

 that the germ is an organism because it has a primary 

 organisation which is not the definitive organisation which 

 belongs to the fully formed organism, but a primary organ- 

 isation which belongs to protoplasm itself. What on earth, 

 we may well ask, is this primary organisation ? The 

 answer is given on the same page. It is "that original 

 constitution of the germ which pre-determines its type of 

 development and the form which ultimately distinguishes it 

 from other species developing under like external conditions". 

 The terms "original constitution" and "primary organisa- 

 tion " are merely synonyms. So we learn that the primary 

 organisation so important to those who have more thought- 

 fully scanned the gap between the cell and the physical 

 molecule, is the primary organisation of the germ, which 

 pre-determines its type of development, etc. I hope that 

 others are satisfied by this most remarkable piece of 

 scientific exposition. For myself I must humbly confess 

 that I am none the wiser for it, any more than I should be 

 if I asked what was a Megalosaurus and I was told : "A 

 Megalosaurus, why you know it is a big lizard, it is — a — a 



