MERISTIC PHENOMENA 59 



types of distribution, he would make a most notable advance. 

 Any one acquainted with mechanical devices can construct a 

 model which will reproduce some of these distinctions more or less 

 faithfully. The point I would not lose sight of is that the analogy 

 with such models must for a long way be a true and valuable 

 guide. I trust that some one with the right intellectual equip- 

 ment will endeavor to follow this guide ; and I am sanguine enough 

 to think that a comprehensive study of the geometrical phenomena 

 of differentiation will suggest to a penetrative mind that critical 

 experiment which may one day reveal the meaning of spontaneous 

 division, the mystery through which lies the road, perhaps the 

 most hopeful, to a knowledge of the nature of life. 



