THE GENERAL CONSTITUTION OF LIVING BEINGS. 75 



philosophy, since it is mixed with the study of the produc- 

 tion of organized beings generally. Robin's researches 

 have contributed in large measure to the advance of knowl- 

 edge as to these obscure phenomena. 



Every organized substance, which is nourished and de- 

 veloped, effects the appearance of new anatomical elements 

 in its neighborhood. It tends to create new forms and 

 new activity about it. One element may engender another 

 like it by segmentation, that is, by breaking up into two 

 or several parts. In cells with nuclei, we observe first the 

 breaking up of the nucleus, and then the individualization 

 of the contents of the cell about the little secondary nuclei 

 thus formed. So a cell is the point of origin of three or 

 four new cells, each of which becomes the seat of exactly 

 the same phenomenon. There is, in this case, a sort of 

 partitioning off effected in the contents of the cell in the 

 course of its growth. A second mode of production of 

 anatomical elements is gemmation. In this case there 

 forms at one of the points of the parent element a bulge, or 

 hernia, from which results another element distinct from 

 the first. And this proceeding, like that of segmentation, 

 is much more like a reproduction than a birth. 



Let us consider the third mode. In this the anatomi- 

 cal elements are born in full completeness within and at the 

 expense of a living liquid, issuing from already-existing 

 anatomical elements. This liquid, called blastema, is made 

 up of immediate principles, which proceed from a transu- 

 dation of the organized substance, into the interstices of 

 which it flows. The blastema is eminently the fertiliz- 

 ing liquid, the secret region in which are condensed the 

 creative forces of life, making themselves evident by a con- 

 tinuous elaboration of cells, fibres, and tubes, which are 

 the rudiments of tissues and organs. In it a very tiny 

 nucleus at first makes its appearance, which little by little 

 envelops itself with solidified matter, that ends by gaining 



