345 



thing possessing specific form. Besides, after all, Avhat real 

 resemblance could there be between the earliest stage of a 

 living thing and of a crystal ? Whenever a crystalline mole- 

 cule detaches itself from aqueous adhesion, either by cohering 

 Aviih another molecule, or by adhering to any minute foreign 

 particle, there exists a starting-point for the building up, by 

 successive external accretions, of a predetermined crystalline 

 form. But a germ, even if invisible to the highest powers of 

 existing microscopes, is a fundamentally different thing : no 

 mere aggregation about it of external nutritive matter will 

 be sufficient for its growth ; before that can proceed its food 

 nnist be absorbed, reconstituted, integrated, completely dif- 

 ferentiated from that which is outside. A crystal begins with 

 a merely statically disposed foundation; but a germ is from 

 the first potentially as complex as the mature living thing 

 which is finally evolved from it. Nor does mere minuteness 

 abridge the interval between a particle of living and a parti- 

 cle of lifeless matter. The former may possess all its charac- 

 teristic properties, though practically invisible. Dr. Bealo 

 has frequently observed the subdivision of living particles of 

 the higher as well as of the lower forms of life, Avhich could 

 only be seen with difficulty when magnified 5000 diameters. 

 And it is difficult to resist his conclusion that " even if the 

 magnifying power could be increased to 50,000 diameters 

 there would still be seen only more minute living particles 

 growing and dividing and giving rise to particles like them- 

 selves."^ Such- particles Avould convert external lifeless into 

 living matter, and so grow. There is nothing more incon- 

 ceivable in this than that young plants should be developed 

 from the scales of the stem and leaves of a Begonia; the 

 minutest particles of living matter are doubtless equally 

 able with the largest aggregates to exert some degree of that 

 coercive polar force which has already been mentioned. Dr. 

 Hughes Bennett, it is true, argues against the production of 

 the immense numbers of particles of living matter found in 

 solutions by the subdivision of similar particles derived from 

 the atmosphere, in the first place, because " no one has ever 

 seen this remarkable phenomenon," and secondly, because 

 " the idea of their rapid multiplication by division is opposed 

 to that of their power of elongating into bacteria and vibrios."^ 

 But Dr. Beale has shown, in the case of the yeast cell at any 

 rate, as no doubt in other cases, that the " very minute par- 

 ticles divide and subdivide independently, producing still 

 more minute particles capable of growth and division like 



* 'Disease Germs,' p. 58. 



- ' Popular Science Review,' vol. viii, p. GO. 



