300 



BIOLOGICAL PHYSICS 



leaving behind it the legacy of its organic remains to its 

 descendants. It is entirely otherwise with the cell, whose 

 life is passed in collective (Figs. 123, 124, 125, 126) 

 existence, and where it constitutes, a definite unit, in a 

 community of cells, held together by complex, though 

 definite, vital arrangements, for the purpose of allowing, 

 or securing, the existence of a definite living organic form, 

 vegetable, or animal, whose individual life, in each 

 instance, is determined in length, and character, by its 

 position, as to fixity, and mobility, in the organic form, 

 or .community, and by the nature of its individual 



FlG. 123. MULTINUCLEATED CELLS FROM THE MARROW. Highly 



magnified. (E. A. S.) 



a, a large cell the nucleus of which appears to be partly divided into three by con- 

 strictions ; b, a cell the enlarged nucleus of which shows an appearance of being 

 constricted into a number of smaller nuclei ; c, a so-called giant-cell with many 

 nuclei ; d, a smaller cell with three nuclei ; e z, other cells of the marrow. 



function in the economy of that organism, or cell 

 community. The individual cell, which pursues a soli- 

 tary existence, and whose " end and aim " is self, typifies, 

 also, the nature, and purpose, of the individual organism, 

 or community of cells, whose "end and aim " is also self, 

 and whose existence is maintained, in most cases, by its 

 preying on its unicellular relatives, and more defenceless 

 multicellular neighbours, and which constitutes the be- 

 ginning of that long chain of organic forms, which, 

 commencing in solitary cell life, ends in communal 

 existence, in the person of man himself, but whether it 

 will really end with man, our far-distant successors must 

 be left to determine. 



