72 THE PSYCHIC LIFE 



most negative part in the act of fecundation. It as- 

 sumes irregular outlines and becomes rumpled, while 

 its contents collect in detached masses of various sizes: 

 it grows clear by degrees and is finally absorbed. It 

 disappears, accordingly, by a phenomenon of regres- 

 sion and without dividing. 



Fecundation aims to replace this wasted element 

 by a nucleus of fresh formation. The latter is pro- 

 duced at the cost of the little body we have described 

 by the name of attendant nucleus or latent nucleus. 

 The attendant nucleus does not act in making up a 

 main nucleus in the cellule of which it is a part; it 

 finds its way into the body of the other animal and it 

 is in this new cellule that it is destined to perform the 

 function of a nucleus. 



In the Chilodon cucullulus, the attendant nucleus 

 divides into two striated capsules, never more. These 

 two capsules grow to unequal sizes; the largest attains 

 a size of forty thousandths of a millimetre; it is this 

 one that forms the new nucleus of the Chilodon. The 

 second capsule shrinks and becomes compressed; it 

 takes its place beside the first one and constitutes the 

 new attendant nucleus. 



To the study of this type of fecundation we may 

 limit our attention; it is the simplest of all, and other 

 forms may be comprehended within it without much 

 difficulty. What complicates the process* in the other 

 species is principally the successive modifications 

 through which the old nucleus passes before suffering 

 absorption. In the Stentor cceruletisthe, nucleus has 

 the shape of a long chaplet or string of beads; at the 

 moment of fecundation the beads of the chaplet break 

 apart and spread in the protoplasm where they finally 

 become absorbed. Among the Paramaecia the phe- 



