132 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 



The portions of organic matter which the Amoeba 

 or the Ciliated Infusorium absorb, slowly undergo, in 

 the body of the organism, a process of molecular 

 disintegration. The changes which the matter passes 

 through in this situation and under such influences 

 are, however, quite different from those which the 

 same matter might have undergone if it had disinte- 

 grated in the water outside the organism. The for- 

 mation of binary and ternary combinations, accom- 

 panied by the emission of some of these as gaseous 

 products, does not occur when the matter disintegrates 

 under the immediate influence of the molecular move- 

 ments of the living matter by which it is surrounded. 

 Ordinary molecular or chemical tendencies are con- 

 quered by more potent influences, just as the tendency 

 of heavy masses to gravitate may be annulled by the 

 occurrence of rapid axial rotations — such as we are 

 familiar with in the case of the gyroscope. And simi- 

 larly, the mode in which the movement of a rotating 

 body of this kind may gradually communicate itself to 

 a motionless ring with which its poles are connected, 

 affords a suggestive illustration of the coercive nature 

 or tendency of pre-existing molecular movements, by 

 virtue of which each kind of living matter is enabled 

 to grow after its own likeness i. Facts of this nature, 



^ Mr. Spencer says : — ' Already, when treating of the nutrition of 

 parts (§ 64), it was pointed out that we are obliged to recognize a 

 power ix)ssessed by each tissue to build up out of the materials brought 

 to it, molecules., of the same type as those of which it is formed. This 



