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always proceeds from an egg — the female cell — fecundated by 

 the male cell. This fecundated egg develops, and at a certain 

 moment of its evolution becomes an adult organism. This 

 organism manufactures gametes, male or female according to 

 its own sex, and these gametes will in their turn originate 

 identical new organisms. The being which created them will 

 continue its cycle and die. But a part of it will remain, the 

 sexual cell which it has put forth and which alone indefinitely 

 perpetuates the species. Everything therefore occurs as if an 

 organism was nothing but the momentary and mortal inter- 

 mediary by means of which life can pass from one germ to 

 another, as Bergson expresses it. It is in this sense that we 

 said that sexual cells were immortal. 



We have, nevertheless, seen that it was possible, under 

 certain conditions, to assure eternal life, or at any rate a much 

 longer span of existence than is normal, to cells of vertebrates 

 such as birds. It was even shown that these cells do not age. 

 In this case it is difficult to speak of individual consciousness. 

 One can at the most speak of a 'chemical memory'. The word 

 'memory' is here taken in a very special sense, for it is possible 

 to immunize these cells against certain substances.^ But, 

 strangely enough, several authors, and amongst others 

 Jennings, Day, and Bertlay in America, have independently 

 observed disturbing facts tending to prove that the paramecia, 

 microscopic infusoria, are endowed with real memory, or in 

 other words, that these unicellular beings can profit from their 

 past experience. This would indicate the existence of some 

 kind of consciousness. The study of these problems is 

 fascinating, and Metalnikov has written a remarkable book on 

 this subject which should be read.'- 



Now, from the point of view which concerns us, if fife is 

 inherited with its specific characteristics for each species, the 

 same is not true of consciousness. Each birth marks a begin- 

 ning, and each being who begins to live, or what amounts to 



^ 'The cellular element when energetically solicited keeps the 

 memory of its reaction for a long time' (Bordet). 



- S. Metalnikov, Inimortalite et Rajeunissement dans la Biologic 

 ynoderne. Flammarion, 1924. 



