62 THE ASCENT OF THE BODY. 



human frame, and line for line the history of the evo« 

 lution will be found to be the same. 



The embryo of the future man begins life, like the 

 primitive savage, in a one-roomed hut, a single simple 

 cell. This cell is round and almost microscopic in 

 size. When fully formed it measures only one-tenth 

 of a line in diameter, and with the naked eye can be 

 barely discerned as a very fine point. An outer cover- 

 ing, transparent as glass, surrounds this little sphere, 

 and in the interior, embedded in protoplasm, lies a 

 bright globular spot. In form, in size, in composition 

 there is no apparent difference between this human 

 cell and that of any other mammal. The dog, the ele- 

 phant, the lion, the ape, and a thousand others begin 

 their widely different lives in a house the same as 

 Man's. At an earlier stage indeed, before it has taken 

 on its pellucid covering, this cell has affinities still 

 more astonishing. For at that remoter period the ear- 

 lier forms of all living things, both plant and animal, 

 are one. It is one of the most astounding facts of 

 modern science that the first embryonic abodes of 

 moss and fern and pine, of shark and crab and coral 

 polyp, of lizard, leopard, monkey, and Man are so 

 exactly similar that the highest powers of mind and 

 microscope fail to trace the smallest distinction be- 

 tween them. 



But let us watch the development of this one-celled 

 human embryo. Increase of rooms in architecture can 

 be effected in either of two ways — by building entirely 

 new rooms, or by partitioning old ones. Both of these 

 methods are employed in Nature. The first, gemma- 

 tion, or budding, is common among the lower forms of 

 life. The second, differentiation by partition, or seg- 



