36 



theless more appropriate than that of ( nurse/ And were 

 the bud to be developed into a higher form of animal than 

 that which produced it, the term e parent } would still, as it 

 seems to me, be the most appropriate one to designate the 

 relation; since the bud, in regard to the individual pro- 

 ducing it, would still be ' its own flesh and blood/ as the 

 parental relation is expressed in homely parlance. 



It is by no means easy, however, to find a name for the 

 relation in which the fissiparous monad stands to the two 

 monads between which it has been equally divided. A 

 parent retains its individuality distinct from its progeny ; 

 but the monad has become a part, and indeed the chief 

 part, of the two that have resulted from its spontaneous 

 fission. Both separated moieties are, in an equal degree, 

 the same individual as the whole from which they pro- 

 ceeded ; and in an infinitesimal though conceivable degree 

 the actual monad is the same individual as the first created 

 one from which it may have proceeded by an uninterrupted 

 succession of spontaneous fissions : and in that degree it 

 may be viewed as one of the oldest individuals in creation, 

 the individual having never wholly or bodily become de- 

 ceased. 



These phenomena, as you will perceive, are suggestive 

 of reflections on personal identity and individuality which 

 might exercise and perplex as keen wits as those of ancient 

 Greece that debated the question of the identity of the old 

 ship of Theseus which had undergone so much repair that 

 no part of the original wood remained. 



But the true and rational explanation of natural phaeno- 

 mena is usually the result of the exercise of common sense 

 and careful observation ; and, returning to those before us, 

 I may recall to your recollection that the Medusae actually 

 manifest the phaenomena that I have ascribed to the 

 Hydra for the sake of illustration : that is to say, they 

 resemble the polype at one stage of their development or 

 under one form of iridividualization, and the medusiform 



