170 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 



aggregations: visible organization is, in fact, a result 

 rather than a cause of Life and living action. The 

 cell is not the ultimate unit, without which the pheno- 

 mena of Life are unable to occur. It is itself the pro- 

 duct, immediate or remote, of an antecedent evolution. 

 Life is dependent upon matter of particular kinds, and 

 results from the aggregated and interdependent play of 

 the molecular forces pertaining to such matter, in an 

 organism. The old and much disputed problem, there- 

 fore, as to whether cells can originate, independently 

 of pre-existing cells, in homogeneous fluids or blas- 

 temata within the body, may and must be resolved 

 into the still simpler question, Whether mere minute, 

 almost microscopically invisible, specks of protoplasm 

 (plastides), which are able to develope into definite c cell' 

 forms, can originate in such fluids ? With the view of 

 throwing light upon the subject, we may call attention 

 to some facts which, though familiar to very many, do 

 not seem to have been adequately appreciated in their 

 bearing upon this question. 



We will first enquire into the mode of origin of the 

 most important of all living units of those which are 

 destined to perpetuate the species. And, having done 

 so, we must test the facts thus ascertained not by 

 the old notions concerning the ( cell,' but by the new 

 facts and views concerning the powers of mere formless 

 living matter, which the present state of biological 

 science compels us to accept. 



The reproductive units of Algae, which, after escaping 



