PROPAGATION OF AlONEKA, 187 



then becomes rounded off, and now appears as an indepen- 

 dent individual, which commences anew the simple course 

 of the vital phenomena of nutrition and propagation. In 

 other Monera (Vampyrella), the body in the process of 

 propagation does not fall into two, but into four equal pieces, 

 and in others, again (Protomonas, Protomyxa, Myxastrum), 

 at once into a number of small globules of mucus, each of 

 which again, by simple growth, becomes like the parent 

 body. Here it is evident that the process of propagation 

 is nothing but a groivtk of the organism beyond its own 

 individual lir)%it of size. 



The simple method of propagation of the Moneron by self- 

 division is, in reality, the most universal and most widely 

 spread of all the different modes of propagation ; for by the 

 same simple process of division, cells also propagate them- 

 selves. Cells are those simple organic individuals, a large 

 number of which constitute the bodies of most organisms, 

 the human body not excepted. With the exception of the 

 organisms of the lowest order, which have not even the 

 perfect form of a cell (Monei-a), or during life only repre- 

 sent a single cell (many Protista and single-celled plants), 

 the body of every organic individual is composed of a great 

 number of cells. Every organic cell is to a certain degree 

 an independent organism, a so-called " elementary organism," 

 or an " individual of the first order." Every higher organ- 

 ism is, in a measure, a society or a state of such variously 

 shaped elementary individuals, variously developed by divi- 

 sion of labour. ^^ Originally every organic cell is only a 

 single globule of mucus, like a Moneron, but differing from 

 it in the fact that the homogeneous albuminous substance 

 has separated itself into two different parts, a firmer albu- 



