122 THE BIOCOSMOS CELLULAR. 



process. On the other hand they may pos- 

 sibly connect with the Diacosmical molecule 

 or atom or electron. So they may form a 

 little span of that bridge between the Inor- 

 ganic and the Organic, the great object of 

 biological pursuit. At any rate, these gran- 

 ules have been conceived to be forms of the 

 organized primordial cell which has likewise 

 the power of self propagation through divi- 

 sion. The result is a new aphorism: every 

 granule springs of a granule (Omne gramr 

 lum, ex gramtlo). This contribution comes 

 from a German biologist, Altmann ; but it is, 

 we learn, rather discredited by the guild, who 

 feel that such a whirl is endlessly coming to 

 the same thing. Still it shows the inherent 

 scientific trend of the time, and will be adopt- 

 ed, if not in this shape, then in some other 

 at some later date. Undoubtedly, it is a di- 

 rect offshoot of Virchow's aphorism which 

 in its turn is a derivative, all of them in des- 

 perate pursuit of the infinitely small as the 

 great original of Nature and indeed of the 

 Universe. It is truly suggestive, yea, pivotal, 

 to observe how one aphorism germinates in 

 the mind from another, quite like this pro- 

 cess of cell from cell. We witness the idea 

 running parallel in evolution with the real- 

 ity; thus the process of biological science 

 takes after that of its own cell, which is in- 



