ELEMENTS OF ORIGINALITY 183 



All the earlier sciences, on which the current theory 

 of descent is built, ignored the actual life-process, 

 intimately considered. Since my theory of the origin 

 of species is inseparable from my theory of life, as 

 an element of originality also may be named the 

 contribution of a new method for attacking the prob- 

 lem of descent — introducing atomic physics. 



The new theory makes necessary a general revision 

 and restatement of the entire subject of organic 

 evolution. 



XXII. The theory that the germ-cells (ovum and 

 spermatozoon, gametes) are ions; that is, ions in the 

 specific sense in which the term "ion" is borrowed 

 to designate a material carrier of an intraatomic 

 (electrical) system. 



This theory includes the theory of fertilization 

 which describes the relation between ovum and 

 spermatozoon that results in their union as one 

 between "ion" and "ion." 



All the phenomena would support this view. Here 

 is a "ripe" ^g^ that has its entrance zone. As Oskar 

 Hertwig has shown (1875), only one spermatozoon 

 is concerned in the fertilization of a normal egg. 

 Before the egg is entered by one spermatozoon, count- 

 less spermatozoa may crowd around the egg. The 

 movement of the spermatozoa here is not a darting 

 about like that of the particles of which Perrin speaks 



