ANIMALS AND PLANTS. 175 



of the triangular mass burst, and give exit to a dense 

 yellowish, glairy fluid, filled with minute granules. This 

 process, which, it will be observed, involves the actual 

 confluence and mixture of the substance of two distinct 

 organisms, is effected in the space of about two hours. 



The authors whom I quote say that they "cannot 

 express" the excessive minuteness of the granules in 

 question, and they estimate their diameter at less than 

 sunVoir ^ an inch. Under the highest powers of the 

 microscope at present applicable such specks are hardly 

 discernible. Nevertheless, particles of this size are mas- 

 sive when compared to physical molecules ; whence there 

 is no reason to doubt that each, small as it is, may have a 

 molecular structure sufficiently complex to give rise to 

 the phenomena of life. And, as a matter of fact, by 

 patient watching of the place at which these infinitesimal 

 living particles were discharged, our observers assured 

 themselves of their growth and development into new 

 monads. These, in about four hours from their being 

 set free, had attained a sixth of the length of the parent, 

 with the characteristic cilia, though at first they were 

 quite motionless; and, in four hours more, they had 

 attained the dimensions and exhibited all the activity of 

 the adult. These inconceivably minute particles are 

 therefore the germs of the Heteromita ; and from the 

 dimensions of these germs it is easily shown that the 

 body formed by conjugation may, at a low estimate, have 

 given exit to thirty thousand of them; a result of a 

 matrimonial process whereby the contracting parties, 



