lyO LIFE AND DEATH. 



grafted, merely for the sake of convenience. Hence, 

 we are led farther and farther from the real truth, 

 and this is why, in order to explain the phenomena 

 of heredity, we find ourselves compelled to inter- 

 calate hypothetical elements between micellae and 

 the microsome in the higher hierarchy quoted above — 

 gemmules, pangenes, plasomes, which are only mental 

 pictures or simple images to represent them. 



§ 4. The Individuality of Complex Beings. 

 Law of the Constitution of Organisms. 



Individuality of Complex Beings. — F'rom the cellular 

 doctrine follows a remarkably suggestive conception 

 of living beings. The metazoa and the metaphytes — 

 that is to say, the multicellular living beings which 

 may be seen with the eyes and do not require the 

 microscope to reveal them — are an assemblage of 

 anatomical elements and the posterity of a cell. 

 The animal or the plant, instead of being an 

 individual unity, is a " multitude," a term which is 

 used by Goethe himself when pondering, in 1807, over 

 the doctrine taught by Bichat ; or, according to the 

 equally correct expression of Hegel, it is a "nation " ; 

 it springs from a common cellular ancestor, just as 

 the Jewish people sprang from the loins of Abraham. 



We now picture to ourselves the complex living 

 being, animal or plant, with its configuration which 

 distinguishes it from every other being, just as a 

 populous city is distinguished by a thousand 

 characteristics from its neighbour. The elements 

 of this city are independent and autonomous for the 

 same reason as the anatomical elements of the 



