CLASSIFICA TION. 107 



be split off from the protoplasmic molecule without being themselves 

 destroyed. In that event we would be forced to believe in the exist- 

 ence of a vital principle unlike the forces which are at work in the 

 non-organized world, and a principle which is transmitted from the 

 parent to its offspring in the ovum and spermatozoon. For the 

 present we are unable to offer even a hypothesis as answer to such 

 questions. 



