Origin of Sexuality 261 



ring to division in relation to Chara and other plants, he said: 

 "I regard the building up of cells to form a definite plant, 

 or the parts of it, as the result of a force radiating from the 

 cell center, stimulating to division; and either that the energy 

 giving rise to this force is equal to producing only a certain 

 amount of tissue, or that it is inhibited or resisted by some 

 external force, which prevents it forming an excess of tissue." 



No other interpretation seemed possible than that definite 

 lines of energy were traversing, rearrangmg, and finally read- 

 justing, the chromatin and protoplasmic substance of the cell. 

 At that time however the existence of a cognitic energy peculiar 

 to the chromatin substance, and of a biotic energy peculiar 

 to the protoplasm, had not occurred to him. 



But already the existence and possible relation of these 

 energies had been worked out, when he became acquainted 

 with the highly suggestive results of Gallardo and Hartog. 

 The latter especially has pointed out that, alike in dividing 

 cells as in electrically charged solids and "foam" mixtures, 

 the behavior and appearances are only explicable if we suppose 

 that "the cell centers are the seats of opposite charges," that 

 the fibers of the spindle (and of asters when such are present) 

 are differentiated in a "field of force" and transmit lines of 

 force under action of a pair of "unlike poles." Not only has 

 he succeeded in producing artificially bii:)olar figures by intro- 

 duction of one or two terminals put to earth, tripolar and 

 quadripolar spindles could be formed that exactly simulated 

 those seen in various plant tissues. 



Hartog further concludes, from comparison with magnetic 

 models, that the chromosomes, the nuclear membrane, the 

 spindle fibers, and the ectoplasmic zone must all be good con- 

 ductors of, or of high permeability to, what he calls a meta- 

 kinetic energy, that apparently corresponds to our cognitic 

 energy. 



Fol in his study of animal eggs (W4), so early as 1873, also 

 considered that radiant streams of energy, somewhat resem- 

 bling electric or magnetic forces, could alone well explain the 

 phenomena of division. 



