318 SEA-SIDE STUDIES. 



regarded as a "parent," it will be difficult to specify 

 in what parentage truly consists. Steenstrup's theory 

 is almost identical, except in language, with that of 

 the old writer alluded to by Quatrefages, who accounted 

 for Bonnet's facts by a " transmitted fecundation : " 

 "D'apres lui, les pucerons produisent toujours des oeufs 

 aussi bien que les autres insectes, mais chez eux la 

 fecondation, au lieu d'agir sur une generation seule- 

 ment, etend son influence a plusieurs generations suc- 

 cessives. Elle devient par consequent inutile jusqu'au 

 moment oil la somme d'action transmise de mere a 

 fiUe est totalement epuisee/' 



At a first glance this may be mistaken for an antici- 

 pation of Owen's theory ; but a more rigorous inspec- 

 tion discovers that Owen's theory differs from it by 

 the all-important character of definiteness. Instead 

 of throwing over the question the obscure generality 

 of a phrase, it points directly to a specific fact, or con- 

 dition, such as, if accepted, would indicate the terminal 

 stage of inquiry, beyond which no intellect could hope 

 to penetrate. It starts from the germ-cell, from which 

 the organism arises, and, following the course of this 

 germ-cell, it holds the Ariadne thread, which, through 

 all the mazes of the labyrinth, conducts the mind to 

 clear issues. Let us, in as brief a space as possible, 

 develop this theory. 



Every organism, plant or animal, originates in a cell. 

 This cell spontaneously divides into two, these two into 

 four, these four into eight, and so on, till, instead of a 

 solitary nucleated cell, a mass is present, known as the 



