42 ON THE EDUCATIONAL VALUE 



II 



able rapidity by means of the vibrations of the 

 long filament or cilium. 



Nor is the amount of chemical energy which 

 the little creature possesses less striking. It is a 

 perfect laboratory in itself, and it will act and re- 

 act upon the water and the matters contained 

 therein ; converting them into new compounds re- 

 sembling its own substance, and at the same time 

 giving up portions of its own substance which have 

 become effete. 



Furthermore, the Euglena will increase in size ; 

 but this increase is by no means unlimited, as the 

 increase of a crystal might be. After it has 

 grown to a certain extent it divides, and each por- 

 tion assumes the form of the original, and proceeds 

 to repeat the process of growth and division. 



Nor is this all. For after a series of such divi- 

 sions and subdivisions, these minute points assume 

 a totally new form, lose their long tails round 

 themselves, and secrete a sort of envelope or box, 

 in which they remain shut up for a time, eventu- 

 ally to resume, directly or indirectly, their primitive 

 mode of existence. 



Now, so far as we know, there is no natural limit 

 to the existence of the Euglena, or of any other 

 living germ. A living species once launched into 

 existence tends to live for ever. 



Consider how widely different this living particle 

 is from the dead atoms with which the physicist 

 and chemist have to do ! 



