98 VITALISM AND SCHOLASTICISM 



by this kind of country-dance on the part of 

 the chromosomes, is called a process of karyo- 



I kinesis or of mitosis and one can hardly dwell 

 at all deeply on the significance of it without 

 coming to the conclusion that a part at least 



i of its intention is that there shall be a siimiaT 

 Distribu- 1 distribution of the chromosomes throughout^ 



tion of \ aJTEHe cells of the body. The originafcell from" 



cnromo- 



somes which the whole body is to be formed was 



possessed of a certain number of chromosomes, 

 let us say eight. At the first division there 

 occurs a halving of each of these, so that in 

 each of the pair of cells which is derived from 

 the original cell there will again be eight 

 chromosomes and each of these will have a 

 sister-chromosome in the other cell. 



Further, as subsequent divisions take place 

 and the number of cells becomes enormously 

 increased, the same process is continued, so that 

 there are always the same number of chromo- 

 somes in every cell of a given species and 

 these are derived by direct descent from the 

 chromosomes of the original cell. These re- 

 markable facts, which are the outcome of the 

 intense study of the cell which has been such 

 a prominent feature of the biological work of 

 the past quarter of a century, are of the pro- 

 foundest significance and have formed the 

 foundations of more than one imposing edifice 



