92 WHAT IS LIFE ? 



substance of the womb its soil ; the egg becomes a 

 parasite to its host the human female. During the 

 growth of the egg come the marvellous changes by which 

 the simple fertilized egg-cell becomes a human infant. 



The contents of the egg l or cell are mostly a mass 

 of protoplasm, a highly complex mass of molecules, 

 called by the specialist, the Yelk. Inside this mass 

 of protoplasm lies an object technically called the 

 nucleus, and inside that probably another object, 

 the nucleolus, as described by Professor Schafer on 

 page 80. Presently there appear two vastly minute 

 objects, which are probably centres of attraction or 

 convergent activity, and in relation to these centres. 

 The whole yelk divides itself into two separate egg- 

 shaped bodies lying side by side like two very 

 minute eggs within the spherical egg. And these two 



1 " The human egg cannot be distinguished from that of most 

 other Mammals, either in its immature or in its more complete con- 

 dition. Its form, its size, its composition, are approximately the 

 same in all. In its fully developed condition, it has an average 

 diameter of T ^ of a line, or O2 millimetres. If the mammalian egg- 

 is properly isolated and held on a glass plate toward the light, it 

 appears to the naked eye as a very fine point. The eggs of most of 

 the higher Mammals are of exactly the same size. . . . Even under 

 the highest magnifying power of the best microscope, there appears 

 to be no essential difference between the eggs of Man, of the Ape, of 

 the Dog, etc. This does not mean that they are not really different 

 in these different Mammals. On the contrary, we must assume that 

 such differences, at least in point of chemical composition, exist 

 universally. Even of human eggs, each differs from the other. In 

 accordance with the law of individual variation, we must assume 

 that ' all individual organisms are, from the very beginning of their 

 individual existence, different, though often very similar.' " (" The 

 Evolution of Man," Prof. Ernst Haeckel, vol. i. 1883, pp. 135-137.) 



Hence there must be protoplasms and protoplasms, but the micro- 

 scope fails in detecting the differences of composition. 



