172 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 



contained in these joints appears at first altogether homo- 

 geneous, as if it were fluid ; but in a more advanced 

 state it becomes more and more granular. The granules 

 are, at their formation, found adhering to the inner 

 surface of the membrane ; but they soon detach them- 

 selves, and the irregular figure which they present at 

 first passes to that of a sphere. These granules congre- 

 gate by degrees in the middle of the joint into a mass, 

 at first elliptical, but which at length becomes perfectly 

 spherical. All these changes are conformable to the 

 phenomena known in vegetable life; those which are 

 to follow have more analogy with the phenomena of 

 animal life. At this stage an important metamor- 

 phosis exhibits itself by a motion of swarming (un 

 mouvement de fourmillement) in the green matter. 

 The granules of which it is composed detach them- 

 selves from the mass one after another, and having thus 

 become free, they move about in the vacant space of 

 the joint with an extreme rapidity. At the same time 

 the exterior membrane of the joint is observed to swell 

 in one point, till on it there forms a little mammilla, 

 which is to become the point from which the moving 

 granules finally issue. . . At first they issue in a 

 body, but soon those which remain, swimming in a 

 much larger space, have much more difficulty in es- 

 caping; and it is only after innumerable knockings 

 against the walls of their prison that they succeed in 

 finding an exit. From the first instant of the motion 

 one observes that the granules or sporules are furnished 



