CELL-LIFE. 97 



g its significance, which still seems to be 

 growing. The second fact here is that this 

 nucleus is in a state of self-separation ; it ap- 

 pears ahvays in the process of giving off 

 other nuclei, or nucleoli, of reproducing itself 

 by a sort of fissiparism or segmentation. The 

 third important fact about the cell is its mass 

 of formative material called protoplasm, 

 which embosoms the nucleus and its process. 

 This protoplasmic mass is described as a vis- 

 cous, somewhat transparent substance, often 

 quite homogeneous, but oftener granulated or 

 even reticulated. The part that it plays is 

 not yet settled; but it may be deemed the en- 

 vironing element or body which sustains the 

 nucleus, stimulating and possibly evolving its 

 process. Whence it comes, or how produced 

 is not known; even whether it be organic is a 

 question among biologists. Doubtless it is 

 an early stage (though not the earliest) of 

 that transitional .bridge which reaches over 

 from the Inorganic to the Organic which 

 bridge has not yet been traversed by science, 

 yea not yet been reached probably. Still it 

 is worth while to notice that in this proto- 

 plasmic mass external to the nucleus are float- 

 ing numerous small bodies, passive, seemingly 

 non-vital, probably rejected waste from the 

 laboratory of Nature, which prepares this 

 protoplasm, and which lies as yet beyond the 



