2l6 



BIOLOGICAL PHYSICS 



conversion of one, or more, of the ordinary forms of 

 energy, or force, into that of nerve energy, or force, by 

 the transmitted potentialities of the fecundated ovum, or 

 primordial germ, and so long as that process of dynamic 

 conversion can be continued, so long will the life of the 

 cell, and the multicell, organism, be maintained, and the 

 great function of innervation be effective, as the vitalising, 

 and formative, medium, dynamically, and physically, in 

 parent, and offspring, alike ; each generation being but 



FIG. 76. FIRST STAGES OF SEGMENTATION OF A MAMMALIAN OVUM ; 

 SEMI-DIAGRAMMATIC. (Drawn by Dr. Allen Thomson, after Ed. v. 

 Beneden's description.) 



z.p., zona pellucida \^>.^L, polar globules ; ect., ectomere ; enf., entomere. a, division 

 into two blastomeres ; b, stage of four blastomeres ; c, eight blastomeres, the 

 ectpmeres partially enclosing the entomeres ; d, e, succeeding stages of segmen- 

 tation showing the more rapid division of the ectomeres and the enclosure of 

 the entomeres by them. 



a repetition of another, in unbroken succession and order, 

 even from the "original departure" of organic, from 

 inorganic matter, under the vital, and formative, influ- 

 ence, of the original cosmic energy, plus " the creative "" 

 stimulus and the subsequent continued conversion of that 

 cosmic energy into vital energy, or life. 



Protoplasm, as it is now technically called, was, or is, 

 the first living, or independently existent, organic material, 

 and the materio-dynamic basis of the whole life forms of 

 the globe, wherein are fashioned and organically evolved 

 its entire flora and fauna, by the formative impulse 



