96 VITALISM AND SCHOLASTICISM 



string (see fig. iii.). Then each bead splits into 

 halves and as the linin thread at the same time 

 flattens out, the appearance comes to be that 

 of a piece of tape along both edges of which 

 small beads have been sewn. Then the piece 

 of tape is split longitudinally, so that we now 

 have two narrow bands of linin each with its 

 single row of chromatin granules. When these 

 processes have taken place in many, though 

 not in all cases the nuclear wall disappears 

 Chroma- anc ^ * wo little bodies, called centrosomes, come 

 somes to lie one at either side of the cell. The chromo- 

 somes, for so the linin bands with chromatin 

 beads are called, arrange themselves between 

 the centrosomes in such a manner as to form 

 a spindle-shaped figure with its broadest part 

 in the centre of the cell and its apices at either 

 side and converging on the centrosomes. Mean- 

 time the cytoplasm, or cell-protoplasm has also 

 been rearranging itself in the neighbourhood of 

 the centrosomes, forming around them a series 

 of rays, so that there are at each side of the 

 cell two figures resembling conventional repre- 

 sentations of the sun, between which is the 

 spindle-shaped basket of chromosomes. 



The chromatin is now no longer arranged 

 along the edges of the linin bands as it was at 

 first, but becomes gathered together about the 

 equator of the spindle, that is at its widest 



