596 



APPENDIX A. 



viduals is finally eiiected. All which facts, when generalised, 

 imply that the nucleus is the governing or co-ordinating part. 

 Now, Professor Owen subsequently points out that the matter of 

 the sperm-cell performs in the fertilised germ-cell just this same 

 function which the nucleus performs in a single-celled animal. 

 We find the absorption by a germ-cell of the contents of a sperm- 

 cell "followed by the appearance of a pellucid nucleus in the 

 centre of the opaque and altered germ-cell ; we further see its 

 successive fissions governed by the preliminary division of the 

 pellucid centre ; " and, led by these and other facts, Professor 

 Owen thinks that " one cannot reasonably suppose that the 

 nature and properties of the nucleus of the impregnated germ-cell 

 and that of the monad can be different." * And hence he further 

 infers that " the nucleus of the monad is of a nature similar to, if 

 not identical with," the matter of the spermatozoon. But we 

 have seen that in the monad the nucleus is the co-ordinating part ; 

 and hence to say that the sperm-cell is, in nature, identical with 

 it, is to say that the sperm-cell consists of co-ordinating matter. 



Chemical analysis affords further evidence, though, from the 

 imperfect data at present obtained, less conclusive evidence than 

 could be wished. Partly from the white and gray nervous sub- 

 stances having been analysed together instead of separately, and 

 partly from the difficulty of isolating the efficient contents of the 

 sperm-cells, a satisfactory comparison cannot be made. Never- 

 theless, possessing in common, as they do, one element, by which 

 they are specially characterised, the analysis, as far as it goes, 

 supports our argument. The following table, which has been 

 made up from data given in the Cyclopcedia of Anatomy and Physi- 

 ology^ Art. Nervous System, gives the proportion of this ele- 

 ment in the brain in different conditions, and shows how impor- 

 tant is its presence. 



This connection between the quantity of phosphorus present 

 and the degree of mental power exhibited, is sufficiently signiii- 



* " Parthenogenesis," pp. 66, 67. 



