1898] CELL-PHYSIOLOGY 311 



also harmonises with the fact that the extremely active changes set 

 up by fertilisation are accompanied by decrease of this phosphorised 

 element. It is useless to speculate, however. We can only say 

 that the two functions of tlie chromatin do not apparently exclude 

 one another ; but that the general activity which originates from 

 it may be but a lower phase of that special activity caused by 

 fertilisation.^ 



Before fertilisation there occurs in the ovum an incidental pro- 

 cess of a strange kind — " strange " because it is a collateral change 

 taking no part in sul^sequent changes. I refer to the production 

 and extrusion of the " polar bodies," It is recognised that the for- 

 mation of each is analogous to cell-formation in o-eneral ; thouo-h 

 process and product are both dwarfed. Apart from any ascribed 

 meaning, the fact itself is clear. There is an abortive cell-formation. 

 Abortiveness is seen firstly in the diminutive size of the separated 

 body or cell, and secondly in the deficient number of its chromo- 

 somes : a corresponding deficiency being displayed in the group of 

 chromosomes remaining in the egg — remaining, that is (on the 

 hypothesis here to be suggested), in the sister-cell, supposing the 

 polar body to be an aborted cell. It is currently assumed that the 

 end to be achieved by thus extruding part of the chromosomes, is to 

 reduce the remainder to half the number characterising the species ; 

 so that when, to this group in the germ-cell, the sperm-cell brings a 

 similarlj^-reduced group, union of the two shall bring the chromo- 

 somes to the normal number. I venture to suggest another interpre- 

 tation more congruous with the ordinary course of Nature, namely, 

 that gamogenesis begins when agamogenesis is being arrested by 

 unfavourable conditions, and that the failino- agamogenesis initiates 

 the gamogenesis. Of numerous illustrations to be presently 

 given, I will, to make clear the conception, name only one — 

 the formation of fructifying organs in plants at times when, 

 and in places where, shoots are falling off in vigour and leaves 

 in size. Here the successive foliar organs, decreasingly fitted 

 alike in cpiality and dimensions for carrying on their normal lives, 

 show us an approaching cessation of asexual multiplication, end- 

 ing in the aborted individuals we call stamens ; and the fact that 



^ The writing of the above section reniinded me of certain allied views which I ven- 

 tured to suggest nearly fifty years ago. They are contained in the ]Vcdm!nstcr linn'eiv 

 for April, 1852, in an article entitled ''A Theory of Population deduced from the 

 (ieneral Law of Animal Fertility." It is there suggested that the " spermatozoon is 

 essentially a neiaral element, and the ovum essentially a haemal element," or, as other- 

 wise stated, that the "sperm-cell is co-ordinating matter and the germ-cell matter to be 

 co-ordinated " (pp. 490-493). And along with this proposition there is given some 

 chemical evidence tending to support it. Xow if, in place of "neural " and " haemal," 

 we say — the element that is most highly phos}ihorised and the element that is ])lios- 

 phorised in a much smaller degree ; or if, in jilace of co-ordinating matter and matter to 

 1)6 co-ordinated, we say — the matter which initiates action and the matter which is 

 made to act ; there is disclosed a kinshi]i between this early view and the view just set 

 forth. 



