REPRODUCTION. 409 



pended, and when their renewal, in that individual, is no 

 longer possible. 



But although the individual perishes, Nature has taken 

 special care that the race shall be constantly preserved, by 

 providing for the production of new individuals, each spring- 

 ing from its predecessor in endless perpetuity. The pro- 

 cess by which this formation, or rather this apparent crea- 

 tion, of a living being is effected, surpasses the utmost 

 powers of the human comprehension. No conceivable com- 

 binations of mechanical, or of chemical powers, bear the 

 slightest resemblance, or the most remote analogy, to or- 

 ganic reproduction, or can afford the least clew to the solu- 

 tion of this dark and hopeless enigma. We must be con- 

 tent to observe and generalize the phenomena, in silent 

 wonder at the marvellous manifestation of express con- 

 trivance and design, exhibited in this department of the 

 economy of created beings. 



Throughout the whole, both of the vegetable and animal 

 world, Nature has shown the utmost solicitude to secure 

 not only the multiplication of the species, but also the dis- 

 semination of their numbers over every habitable and acces- 

 sible region of the globe, and has pursued various plans for 

 the accomplishment of these important objects. 



The simplest of all the modes of multiplication consists 

 in the spontaneous division of the body of the parent into 

 two or more parts; each part, when separated, becoming a 

 distinct individual, and soon acquiring the size and shape of 

 the parent. We meet with frequent examples of this pro- 

 cess of fissiparous generation, as it is termed among the 

 infusory animalcules. Many species of Monads, for in- 

 stance, which are naturally of a globular shape, exhibit at a 

 certain period of their development a slight circular groove 

 round the middle of their bodies, which by degrees be- 

 coming deeper, changes their form to that of an hour-glass; 

 and the middle part becoming still more contracted, they 

 present the appearance of two balls, united by a mere point. 

 The monads in this state are seen swimming irregularly in 



VOL. II. 52 



