IV THE CELL AND THE ORGANISM 71 



appearance of an electrical and polar system; its nuclear 

 material arranges itself in parallel bodies or chromosomes 

 like an electrical arrangement; its centrosome (if any) splits 

 up, as if under some unbearable electrical strain, just as is 

 the case in Radioactivity, and two polar bodies are formed 

 from it at opposite sides of the nucleus, from which lines of 

 force proceed throughout the now disintegrating nucleus and 

 cell; the nuclear bodies of the breaking-up cell divide them- 

 selves equally between the two polar bodies, and aggregate 

 and concentrate towards them until finally the separation 

 between the two systems is complete and the material of 

 the nucleus and cell has split into two. The division of the 

 cell into two cells is complete. It is apparent from this 

 summary statement how the cell in division approximates 

 to the character of the atom of matter described in the last 

 chapter. Were they not in the beginning both electrical 

 systems with their nuclei, their fields and their cataclysmic 

 behaviour? In the cell the original electrical character of 

 the division has become overlaid with and obscured by 

 other factors so that the electrical character is no longer 

 recognisable, except in the general appearance and scheme 

 of division. But originally it possibly was electrical, as 

 it still is in appearance. Arguing back from the analogy 

 of cell-division to the probable original rise of the cell 

 from inorganic matter, we may imagine the building up 

 of very complex organic or hydrocarbon compounds 

 under favourable external conditions, in which the influence 

 of sunlight and other forms of electrical energy played 

 an important part, just as sunlight in the presence of 

 chlorophyll still plays a foremost part in the production 

 of new cells and organic substances in plant-life. We know 

 that millions of years ago, when life arose, the sun was 

 much hotter than it is to-day, and sunlight contained 

 much more of the chemically active rays which facilitate 

 organic changes. The peculiar electrical energy of the 

 sun may therefore have played a decisive part in the 

 origin of life. In other words, the part which electrical 

 changes appear to play in the process of cell-division may 



