close continuous watching at the oculars of my 



scope. 

 Sleep, however, comes not so easily. Ere I have 

 drifted into that desirable existence of shadows 

 and of dreams I have long pondered the meaning 

 of much that I have seen. Indeed, there can be 

 little doubt in any reflective person's mind that the 

 transformations which this young jellyfish stage 

 represents are, by reason of their close connection 

 with embryonic development, among the profound 

 manifestations of Nature. Who can witness with- 

 out wonder the apparently simple changes which 

 follow the fertilization of the egg — changes 

 wherein a single cell through the operation of 

 chemical and physical forces is caused to multiply 

 itself and to assume a predetermined configuration 

 —changes apparently simple, yet, verily, changes 

 of a kind still as little to be understood by the 

 most advanced scholar as by the rudest unlettered 

 native in the hills of Tennessee 4 ? 



Sentimental philosophers have oftentimes be- 

 come maudlin over this phenomenon of transfor- 

 mation following the fertilization of the egg cell. 

 Nor, in truth, are its implications lightly to be con- 

 sidered. Yet it safely may be ventured that when 



[37i] 



