438. Scientific Inteligence. 
explain a phenomenon until then but little understood, and to corrobo- 
rate the theory of the exclusive intervention of the cells for the forma- 
tion of the tissues, it does not follow that we must accept it without ex- 
amination, and solely from its being reconcilable with an accredited 
system. I have therefore examined the question with all that care 
which its importance demands, and, after the most minute researches, I 
am perfectly convinced that the segments of the vitellus or the granular 
spheres are not real cells. Consequently Barry and Bergmann were 
deceived when they admitted the contrary. 
_ When the subdivision of the vitellus is completed, a process ensues 
in cach of the granular spheres resulting from this division which con- 
verts them into true cells. But before arriving at this degree of organ- 
ization, as we have seen, the living matter had assumed regular forms, 
and in each vitelline sphere had acquired a generating activity which 
becomes a powerful cause of multiplication. 
There is then a distinct organic form, which may be considered as a 
primary act of individualization, or a primary manifestation of life, 
between the amorphous state of this matter and its actual application to 
the formation of the cellular walls. This primary act, or this primary 
manifestation, has for its object the formation of granular spheres, 
which, without being bounded by an enveloping membrane, have already 
a true existence, are true living individuals, inasmuch as they enjoy the 
faculty of reproduction, and in multiplying they become the active 
elements of the organism, and contribute to the formation of the tissues 
of which the organism is composed. 
For my own part, I am unacquainted with anything which is more 
curious to observe than this progressive duplication of living spheres, 
reproducing in each secondary segment the reduced but invariable 
image of the primary vitelline sphere. And in proportion as we wit- 
ness the realization of this remarkable phenomenon, we are as it were 
involuntary led to seek, in the material of the substance which is 
doubled, some arrangement which may explain a metamorphosis, the 
cause of which cannot be clearly found elsewhere. 
In fact, a more attentive examination soon shows that in the centre 
of each vitelline sphere there exists a diaphanous homogeneous globule 
having a fatty aspect, and which cannot be compared to anything better 
than a drop of oil. Seeing that this globe appears in so constant 4 
manner, we inquire if the division of the vitellus cannot be attributed to 
its influence. But in order to solve this problem, what passes in this 
same vitellus prior to its division, and when it consequently appears as 
a simple sphere, should be examined. 
_ We then see that the fatty or oleaginous globe, hidden in the midst 
of the granulations of the primitive sphere, there undergoes a contrac- 
Pe ae 
lille SO 
