-ilS TRANSACTIONS AND PROCEEDINGS OF [Sess. lvi. 



Ealph believes conjugation to occur whenever nutrition 

 is diminished, and holds therefore conjugation to be merely 

 a special form of nutrition, and the less nutritive, smaller, 

 hungrier, and more mobile organism, or male cell, to seek 

 out the large, well-nourished female. Conjugation is said to 

 be equivalent to " isophagy," the latter taking the place of 

 " heterophagy." 



Cienkowski also regards conjugation as a process of rapid 

 assimilation. 



Simon says two similar cells unite, " in order to reach the 

 limit of their individuality," and that the union brings about 

 a chemico-physical process, which makes the female cell 

 capable of independent nutrition and growth, and evokes 

 potential properties into actual life (Geddes and Thomson, 

 p. 161). 



Geddes and Thomson, p. 162, state — "In regard to the 

 origin of fertilisation, that the almost mechanical flowing 

 together of exhausted cells is connected by the stages of 

 multiple conjugation with the ordinary form of the latter, 

 while the respective differentiation of the two elements 

 effects the transition to fertilisation proper. Historically, 

 then, fertilisation is comparable to mutual digestion, and, 

 though bound up with reproduction, has arisen from a 

 nutritive want. With the differentiation of the elements 

 on anabolic and katabolic lines, the nature of the fertilising 

 act becomes more definite. The essentially katabolic male 

 cell getting rid of all accessory nutritive material contained 

 in the sperm-cap and the like, brings to the ovum a supply 

 of characteristic waste products or katastates, which stimu- 

 late the latter to division. The profound chemical differences, 

 surmised by some, are intelligible as the outcome of the 

 predominant anabolism and katabolism in the two elements. 

 The union of the two sets of products restores the normal 

 balance and rhythm of cellular life. Ealph's suggestion is 

 thus included and defined." 



Granted that, historically, fertilisation was really com- 

 parable to [partial, G. M.] mutual digestion of two exhausted 

 cells flowing almost mechanically together, I miglit under- 

 stand how a new cell arises more vigorous than either parent, 

 the [essential, G. M.] constituents of the two cells being able 

 to feed on one another's albuminoid materials, but I cannot 



