Origin of Sex. 299 



place that which is lost; that is, in the disruption of the lost molecules 

 bonds have been broken which remain as attractive poles until satisfied 

 or neutralized again by the attachment of new particles. The cell is 

 subject to a normal growth, up to a certain limit, in addition to its re- 

 pairing operations, which growth is likewise due to the impulse of polar 

 forces. We must conceive the molecules of the cell to 'be possessed of 

 unsatisfied bonds by which they attach the new molecules of nutrient 

 matter to themselves. See the theory of chemical attraction. 



As shown elsewhere, the activities of the forces of the environment 

 of every body of matter are competent to develop in such body currents 

 of electrical energy, and establish poles or centers of attraction and re- 

 pulsion. Organic cells are not exempt from this law, and while every 

 molecule has its independent current and its poles, the cell, as a whole, 

 has its likewise. And so has the nucleus within the cell. Chemical 

 affinity is regarded as the result of a polar energy. Hunger is the ex- 

 pression in consciousness of the unsatisfied affinities of the organic 

 molecules composing our tissues. In the absorption of food by an or- 

 ganized cell, the cell may be regarded as positive and the food particles 

 negative. As the cell grows in size b}^ this absorption the poles recede 

 to a greater distance from each other and each pole gathers about it the 

 organic elements subject to its sphere of attraction. This is illustrated 

 in figs. 126 and 127. 



FIG. 126. Division of Animal Cell, showing nucleus a 

 in process of forming two daughter nuclei ; and the pro- 

 toplasmic network 6. (G. and T. from Carnoy.) 



This establishment of two poles and two 

 nuclei with their mutual repulsion involves 

 the mechanical division of the cell into two. 

 It seems then that the very energy which com- 

 pels the building of a cell insures its rupture 

 when complete. This rupture is essential to 

 the continuance of vitality. Death of an in- 

 dividual is therefore only an incident of life 

 of the general sum of organic vitality, of 

 which each race in the first pla';e, and each 

 individual in the next, becomes a convenient 

 vehicle, just as a stove is a convenient radi- 

 ator of heat. But vitality is not an inherent 

 quality of an organism any more than heat is 

 an inherent quality of a stove. The phenom- 

 ena, the sum of which we call vitality, are the effects upoa the cell, or 

 upon the body of cells, of the impact of external energies whose exis- 

 tence in no way depends upon the organism, but which, on the contrary, 

 build up the body, keep it moving as long as it remains flexible and 



FIG. 126. 



