232 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 



will not speak more in detail on this subject now, 

 as the particulars would be somewhat too technical. 

 Such a mode of origin of new organic units is closely 

 allied to the process which gives birth to the zoospores 

 of certain Fungi and Algae, or to the reproductive 

 gemmules of Protomyxa. In each case there exists, at 

 first, formless living matter : only the independent units 

 into which it afterwards divides remain to form a 

 coherent tissue in the one case, whilst they separate 

 and form independent reproductive units in the other 

 instances mentioned. 



A careful consideration of all the facts adduced in 

 the present chapter leads us to the conclusion that 

 Living Units, whether reproductive or not, may ori- 

 ginate by one or other of five principal methods within 

 the bodies of pre-existing organisms : 



1. In a not-living organizable fluid we have good 



reason to suppose that a living unit may ori- 

 ginate ; and this being so we should have in 

 such case a veritable instance of the passage 

 of the not-living into the living. Life would 

 here begin de novo owing to the occurrence of 

 certain new molecular combinations. To this 

 process we propose to apply the name Arche- 

 biosis l . 



2. Where living particles or portions of living matter 



exist in a fluid or semi-fluid medium some of 



1 From apx?i, ' beginning/ and fitoca, ' to live.' 



