CHAPTER V 

 REPRODUCTION 



Origin of Living Matter Unexplained. — Through a 

 long series of slow changes the earth as it exists to-day 

 was developed from a kind of nebula, and complex 

 organisms that live upon the earth were evolved from 

 very simple organisms. We do not understand how the 

 nebula or non-living matter first came into existence, 

 and we do not understand where and how the first living 

 form originated. It seems but a step from non-living 

 matter to the simplest form of living matter, yet it is 

 a step that marks a sharp distinction and we do not 

 know how it was taken. Some day perhaps we may 

 bridge the gap in our knowledge and find out how the 

 peculiar combination of non-living elements called 

 protoplasm became endowed with life, but to-day we 

 must content ourselves with the knowledge that the 

 subtle thing that we call life transfigures the mass of 

 elements and gives it a threefold power to move, to 

 grow, and to reproduce, and so distinguishes it abso- 

 lutely from all forms of non-living matter. 



Reproduction. — Living matter is able to manufacture 

 new substances like itself from food that it assimilates. 

 Living organisms in consequence grow and when they 

 reach maturity they produce out of the extra protoplasm 



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