THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 555 



But, as our table indicates, processes of agamic gene- 

 ration are alone met with amongst myriads of the 

 lowest forms of life, which, hitherto, have not only 

 been regarded as distinct c species/ but have been 

 ranged tinder different kingdoms, classes, orders, etc. 



And the table also shows that similar agamic processes 

 of fission may occasionally take place in the embryos, 

 even, of vertebrate animals. So that if Prof. Huxley's 

 and Dr. Carpenter's notions were to be adopted, we 

 might be compelled to deny the attribute of indivi- 

 duality to each of the products of a twin birth, because 

 the two may have originated by a process of fission in 

 the early embryo : the two persons would in such a 

 case be c zooids/ or component halves of one indivi- 

 dual, however repugnant such a conclusion might be 

 to our ordinary conceptions. For if all the products 

 of a fertilized germ are to be considered as one c indi- 

 vidual/ it would of course make no difference to those 

 who thought it best to adopt such a nomenclature, 

 whether the germ or embryo divided in its earliest 

 stages, or whether it multiplied by a process of budding 

 at some later period of its development. In each case 

 the products, however numerous, would have to be 

 regarded as constituting only one biological < indivi- 

 dual.' Fortunately, however, for those who might have 



so as to come into contact with them; whilst towards other species 

 the same climbing plants seem to display just as marked an aversion. 

 They avoid one another and never touch, whilst running up the same 

 wall side by side. 



