126 LIFE AND DEATH. [III. 



According to Gotte's ^ idea ' the ^gg of a Bomhinator igneus 

 before fertilization cannot be considered to be a cell either 

 wholly or in part ; and this is equally true of it at its origin and 

 after its complete development ; it is only an essentially homo- 

 geneous organic mass enclosed by a membrane which has been 

 deposited externally.' This mass is ' unorganised and not 

 living^,' and ' during the first phenomena of its development all 

 vital powers must be excluded.' In this way the continuity of 

 life between two successive individuals is always interrupted ; 

 or, as Gotte says in his last essay : — ' The continuity of life 

 between individuals of which one is derived from the other by 

 means of reproduction, exists neither in the rejuvenescence of 

 the Monoplastides nor in the condition of the germ among the 

 Polyplastides — a condition which is derived from the former ^.' 



This is quite logical, although in my opinion it is both un- 

 proved and incorrect. But, on the other hand, it is certainly 

 illogical for Gotte to derive the death of the Metazoa in a totally 

 different way, i.e. from the dissolution of their cell-colonies. It 

 is quite plain that the death of the Metazoa does not especially 

 concern the reproductive cells, but the individual which bears 

 them ; Gotte must therefore seek for some other origin of 

 death — an origin which will enable it to reach the body {soma) 

 — as opposed to the germ-cells. If there still remained any 

 doubt about the failure to establish a correspondence between 

 death and the encystment of the Monoplastides, we have here, 

 at any rate, a final demonstration of the failure ! 



But there is yet another great fallacy concealed in this deri- 

 vation of the death of the Polyplastides. 



. Among the lowest Polyplastides, where all the cells still 

 remain similar, and where each cell is also a reproductive cell, 

 the dissolution of the cell-colony is, according to Gotte, to be 

 regarded as death, inasmuch as 'the integrity of the mother- 

 individual absolutely comes to an end ' (1. c, p. 78). The disso- 

 lution of a cell-colony into its component living elements can 

 only be called death in the most figurative sense, and can have 

 nothing to do with the real death of the individuals ; it only 

 consists in a change from a higher to a lower stage of indivi- 

 duality. Could we not kill a Magosphaera by boiling or by some 



^ ' Entwicklungsgeschichte der Unke,' Leipzig, 1875, p. 65. 

 ^ Id., p. 842. 3 ( Ursprung des Todes/ p. 79. 



I 



