HEREDITY 



which has been transmitted to it through 

 countless successions, not of adult bodies 

 but of previous minute primordial cells. 



Of what avail then in our discussion is 

 it to cite the peculiar set of electrical cur- 

 rents in functionating nerves, or processes 

 of growth affected by mineral salts ? We 

 might as well say that fire is caused by the 

 smoke which generally accompanies it. In 

 view of the infinitely complex processes 

 fundamentally related to vital reproduc- 

 tion, through most ancient descent, what 

 is the probability of experimenters being 

 able some day to give us a formula or re- 

 ceipt for making life altogether de novo? 



Meantime, the reader should now note 

 that though in the primordial cell the mat- 

 ter associated with life is so near nothing, 

 life itself, so far as its most specific proper- 

 ties and potentialities are concerned, exists 

 to an unexampled degree. The microbic 

 whale, for example, starts with more vital 

 45 



