140 THE CASE AGAINST EVOLUTION 



components, which are individually self-perpetuating by 

 growth and division, namely, the chondriosomes and the Golgi 

 bodies — "both mitochondria and Golgi bodies are able to 

 assimilate, grow, and divide in the cytoplasm." (Gatenby.) 

 Wilson is of opinion that the law of genetic continuity may 

 have to be extended even to those minute granules and par- 

 ticles of the cytosome, which were formerly thought to arise 

 de novo in the apparently structureless hyaloplasm. Speaking 

 of the emulsified appearance of the starfish and sea urchin 

 eggs, he tells us that their protoplasm shows ''a structure some- 

 what like that of an emulsion, consisting of innumerable 

 spheroidal bodies suspended in a clear continuous basis or 

 hyaloplasm. These bodies are of two general orders of mag- 

 nitude, namely: larger spheres or macrosomes rather closely 

 crowded and fairly uniform in size, and much smaller micro- 

 somes irregularly scattered between the macrosomes, and 

 among these are still smaller granules that graduate in size 

 down to the limit of vision with any power {i.e. of micro- 

 scope) we may employ." {Science, March 9, 1923, p. 282.) 

 Now, the limit of microscopic vision by the use of the highest- 

 power oil-immersion objectives is one-half the length of the 

 shortest waves of visible light, that is, about 200 submicrons 

 (the submicron being one millionth of a millimeter). Par- 

 ticles whose diameter is less than this cannot reflect a wave 

 of light, and are, therefore, invisible so far as the micro- 

 scope is concerned. By the aid of the ultramicroscope, how- 

 ever, we are enabled to see the halos formed by particles not 

 more than four submicrons in diameter, which, however, repre- 

 sents the limit of the ultramicroscope, and is the diameter hy- 

 pothetically assigned to the protein multimolecule. Since, 

 therefore, we find the particles in the protoplasm of the cell 

 body graduating all the way down to the limit of this latter 

 instrument, and since on the very limit of microscopic vision 

 we find such minute particles as the centrioles "capable of 

 self-perpetuation by growth and division, and of enlargement 

 to form much larger bodies," we cannot ignore the possibility 



