298 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [Oct. 



self in the middle and finally cuts itself in two. The 

 original amoeba is no more ; in its place there are two. 

 Thus nearly at the bottom of the scale of life are mani- 

 fested all of the fundamental features, the living sub- 

 stance moves itself, takes nourishment, digests it and 

 changes non-living into living substance and increases in 

 size ; it seems to feel and to avoid the disagreeable and 

 choose the agreeable and finally it performs the miracle 

 of reproducing its kind, of giving out its life and sub- 

 stance to form other beings, its offspring. 



It is the belief of many biologists that the larger and 

 complex forms even up to man himself may be consid- 

 ered an aggregation of structural elements originally 

 more or less like the amoeba just described; but instead 

 of each member of the colony, each individual itself car- 

 rying on all the processes of life independently, as with 

 the amcEba, there is a division of labor. Some move, 

 some digest, some feel, think and choose, some give rise 

 to new beings, all change lifeless matter into their own 

 living substance. 



The processes and phenomena by which a new indi- 

 vidual is produced are included under the comprehensive 

 term. Embryology. 



Ail organisms, great or small, are but developments of 

 minute germs budded off by the parent or parents, and 

 the way in which these minute beginnings develop into 

 perfect forms like tlieir parents can only be followed by 

 the aid of a microscope. Indeed, in no field of biology 

 has the microscope done such signal service in revealing 

 the processes of life. 



The method of the production of a new being with the 

 amoeba, as we have just seen, is for the parent to give 

 itself entire to its offspring — the parent ceasing to be in 

 producing its offspring. With some other lowly forms 

 a part of the body of the parent buds out, grows and 

 finally falls_|off as^^an independent organism, or remains 



