Individuality 51 



breaking away from one another, may live separately. 

 Huxley extended the use of the word individual so as 

 to include as a single zoological individual the whole 

 set of creatures cohering in chains or breaking apart, 

 which had been produced by budding from the product 

 of a single egg-cell. This subtle analysis of ideas de- 

 lighted and interested his contemporaries, and the train 

 of logical examination of what is meant by individu- 

 ality has persisted to the present time. Like all other 

 zoological ideas, this has been considerably altered by 

 the conception of evolution. Zoologists no longer 

 attempt to stretch logical conceptions until they fit 

 enormous and different parts of the living world. They 

 recognise that the living world, because it is alive, is 

 constantly changing, and that living things pass 

 through different stages or kinds of individuality in 

 the course of their lives. A single egg-cell is one 

 kind, perhaps the simplest kind, of zoological indi- 

 vidual ; when it has grown up into a simple polyp it 

 has passed into a second grade of individuality; when, 

 by budding, the polyp has become branched, a third 

 grade is reached, and when the branches have become 

 different, in obedience to the different purposes which 

 they are to serve in the whole compound creature, a 

 still further grade is reached. Huxley's attempt to 

 find a meaning for individuality that would appl}' 

 equally to a single simple creature, to a compound 

 creature, and to the large number of separate creatures, 

 all developed by budding from one creature, is a strik- 

 ing instance of his singular capacity for bringing ap- 

 parently dissimilar facts into harmony, by finding out 

 the common underlying principle, and, although we no 

 longer accept this particular conclusion, we cannot fail 

 to notice in it the peculiar powers of his mind. 



