The Organisation of Matter 



are reproduced the nucleus and all the elements 

 of the original cell. 



Now all these actions, which appear to defy 

 analysis by their complexity, are easily explained 

 by diffusion. If we let fall into a liquid mass a 

 drop of coloured saline solution to represent the 

 nucleus, and then, on either side, a drop of a 

 more concentrated solution, they repel each 

 other as the attraction spheres do in the living 

 cell. At the same time around them appear, 

 in their regular order, all the figures, all the 

 movements, and all the phenomena of 

 karyokinesis. No example could furnish a 

 better proof of the utility of this synthetic 

 morphology, which throws light on the most 

 intimate mechanism of life. 



Experimental proof of the part played by 

 diffusion in vital phenomena is again found in 

 the startling experiments which, since 1899, 

 Professor Jacques Loeb of the University of 

 San Francisco and Professor Yves Delage of the 

 Sorbonne have carried out in artificial partheno- 

 genesis. Eggs of sea-urchins and starfish have 

 been fertilised and brought to a remarkable 



degree of development by the sole action of 

 R 277 



