ORIGIN OF SPECIES 217 



Vaulx).^^ Also, Janda experimented upon a hermaph- 

 roditic worm, and found that "in a hermaphrodite 

 both types of sex organs can be produced from body 

 cells or from latent buds resembling body cells. "^^ 

 The late E. A. Minchin said: 



"The vital processes exhibited by the cell 

 indicate a complexity and a minuteness in the 

 details of its mechanism which transcends our 

 comprehension and baffles the human imagina- 

 tion, to the same extent as do the immensities 

 of the stellar universe. If such language seems 

 hyperbolic, it is but necessary to reflect on some 

 of the established discoveries of cytology, such 

 as the extraordinary degree of complication 

 attained in the process of division of the nucleus 

 by karyokinesis, or the bewildering series of 

 events that take place in the nuclei of germ cells 

 in the processes of maturation and fertilization. 

 Such examples of cell-activity give us, as it were, 

 a glimpse into the workshop of life and teach us 

 that the subtlety and intricacy of the cell-micro- 

 cosm can scarcely be exaggerated."^*^ 

 Concerning germ-cells, Edmund B. Wilson ex- 

 plains : 



"In the lowest forms, such as the unicellular 



28 Nature, July 8, 1922. 



2' Jacques Loeb, The Organism as a Whole, 220. 



'" American Naturalist, 1916. 



