4 THE RUBBER TREE BOOK 



series of changes which occur in a plant-cell before its division. 

 Till quite lately the nucleus, or small body in the centre of every 

 living cell, was supposed at no time to have any special structure, 

 as very little was visible by means of the very best microscopes. 

 It has now been found by the use of certain stains that a most 

 remarkable series of structural changes occur within it as a 

 preliminary to division. A complex spiral structure first 

 appears which arranges itself in loops. These divide trans- 

 versely and split up longitudinally, each piece being connected 

 by delicate fibres to special protoplasmic bodies at the top and 

 bottom of the cell. An equal number of these pieces passes 

 towards each of these bodies, and losing their separate identities, 

 they run together to form nuclei at both ends of the cell. 

 Division of the cell by means of a transverse membrane then 

 occurs, the two resulting cells being apparently identical with 

 the parent cell and with each other. But in the early stages 

 of development each may possess distinct properties, since 

 they may become the starting-points of different organs or 

 structures of the body. This implies some selective and 

 directing agency in order that the specially-modified cells may 

 appear in the right place and at the right time. 



Continuing his remarks, Dr Russel Wallace says: " The 

 complex changes going on in every cell and atom of every 

 living creature during its whole term of life are summarized 

 in the one word ' growth/ and being so familiar, this term is 

 taken to explain everything while it really explains nothing. 



" Professor A. Kerner, in The Natural History of Plants, 

 refers to the chemical explanation of the phenomena of cell- 

 division given by the materialistic school of physiologists: 

 ' It does not explain the purposeful sequence of different 

 operations in the same protoplasm without any change in the 

 external stimuli, the thorough use made of external advantages, 

 the resistance to injurious influences, the avoidance or encom- 

 passing of obstacles, the punctuality with which all the functions 

 are performed, the periodicity which occurs with the greatest 

 regularity under constant conditions of environment, nor, 

 above all, the fact that the power of discharging all the 

 operations requisite for growth, nutrition, renovation and 

 multiplication is liable to be lost/ '' 



The want of any reasonable explanation compelled even 



