148 THE BIOC08MOS CELLULAR. 



only in the results. Still another point to be 

 mentioned .is that these early unicellular or- 

 ganisms cannot with any definiteness be dis- 

 tinguished as plant or animal such bifurca- 

 tion has hardly yet taken place corporeally. 

 What is it that determines the seemingly unde- 

 termined cell to its future, be this vegetal or 

 animal? Such a problem opens into another 

 prolific discussion of biologists on pre-forma- 

 tion and epigenesis, which must here be omit- 

 ted. The claim has been made that this uni- 

 cellular Life is greater in quantity than all 

 other forms of Life combined, that it em- 

 braces more than half of the total Life-stuff 

 of the globe. 



The Bacterion, then, may stand as the near- 

 est approach to the transition from Unlife 

 to Life. Possibly upon this fact can be 

 grounded its destructive character when it 

 gets a strong foothold in higher organisms 

 like the human. It disintegrates them, turn- 

 ing them back into these primordial cells 

 which lead to Unlife, and which are negative 

 to associated cell-life. Thus the Bacterion 

 has brought forth a special science of itself 

 (Bacteriology) which has an important place 

 in Pathology. 



But not all of these Bacteria are destruc- 

 tive, not all have their tendency toward death. 

 Others are life-promoting: in fact, the most 



