222 ORIGIN AND NATURE OF LIFE 



Contemporary with these latter changes in 

 the daughter nuclei, the rest of the colloid 

 material of the cell begins to divide simply 

 around the two daughter nuclei, indenting, 

 becoming hour-glass-shaped, and finally divid- 

 ing into two halves. In this way two cells 

 are formed, which increase in size until once 

 more similar energy conditions arise and lead 

 to a fresh division, initiated and carried 

 through in the same fashion. 



There is nowhere outside living matter a 

 set of energy phenomena found to occur 

 spontaneously at all resembling this remark- 

 able sequence of changes. Diffusion artefacts 

 bearing an artificial resemblance have been 

 described, but these do not occur naturally, 

 and bear no real analogy to the living pro- 

 cesses. 



In the processes of cell-reproduction and 

 division there is a type of energy at work 

 never found elsewhere than in living structures. 



There is one interesting exception to the 

 process of nuclear-division described above, 

 and that is when the first division of all occurs 

 in the maturation of the ovum, which precedes 

 the sexual production of a new individual in 

 the higher plant or animal. An early stage 

 in the history of the new individual is a 

 union of two cells one from a male and the 



