254 THE BEGINNINGS 01 LIIE. 



to manifest its contractility i. The organisms were 

 then true VortkelU^ though they subsequently still fur- 

 ther increased in size, and gradually assumed the ordi- 

 nary campanulate form. 



Concerning these and the other observations recorded 

 in the same paper, M. Pineau says: — <^Tel est le re- 

 sultat auquel je suis arrive sur un des points le plus 

 delicates de I'etude des etres microscopiques, et sur 

 lequel j'appelle Inattention des observateurs, avec d'au- 

 tant plus de confiance, que ce n'est qu'apres de nom- 

 breuses tentatives et des observations maintes fois 

 repetees, que je suis arrive a une entiere certitude 

 a ce sujet/ 



How is it that such specific organisms can spring 

 so sharply into existence, without any ordinary parents 

 from whom they might have been supposed to inherit 

 their specific characters? This is the principal diffi- 

 culty which at present stares the evolutionist in the face. 

 But let us not, on account of our present unfamiliariLy 

 with such possibilities, suppose the difficulty greater 

 than it is. Let us contrast this unfamiliar problem 

 with that with which we are more familiar, and 

 whose difficulties, therefore, we are only too apt to 

 gloss over. Is there not a somewhat similar difficulty 

 with regard to the genesis of crystals out of solutions 



^ The originally non-contractile condition of the pedicle is quite in 

 accordance with the observations of Stein and others. 



