128 THE NATURE AND ORIGIN OF LIFE 



bacteridia, subjected to chance variation, those which 

 chance renders fitter to struggle against the anthrax will 

 triumph and be preserved, thanks to the sieve anthrax- 

 bacteridia, which, on the contrary, will destroy in proportion 

 as they are produced all those elements of the sheep which 

 chance renders unfitted for the struggle against the bacteridia. 

 And so, if the sheep survives, as we have supposed, it will be 

 made up of histological elements sifted out by the influence 

 of the anthrax bacteridia. It will, therefore, be more 

 fitted to resist a new inoculation of the terrible disease. 



This strict application of the Darwinian method of inter- 

 preting the facts, fantastic as it may appear, sets us on the 

 way of a more reasonable explanation. The moment we 

 try to explain the individual adaptation of an isolated being 

 to new conditions of existence, we no longer consider the 

 being as a unit but as an agglomeration of smaller units 

 capable of independent multiplication and destruction. Then, 

 by applying to these smaller units the explanatory process 

 which is the proper language of Natural Selection, we arrive 

 at a conception of the adaptation of the whole individual. 



To apply this process we decompose the sheep into cells ; 

 in reality we have no reason to consider the cells as being 

 the least units susceptible of independent multiplication and 

 destruction. Facts, as we know them nowadays, concerning 

 the possible adaptation of an isolated unicellular being lead 

 us to think just the contrary that the cell itself, if you wish 

 to apply Darwinian interpretations, will have to be considered 

 an agglomeration of yet smaller parts, to which the Dar- 

 winian language will be also applicable. But in that case, 

 the anthrax bacteridium itself will have to be considered as 

 a mechanism and consequently as capable of individual adap- 

 tations resulting from variations in its structure by means of 

 these smaller units. 



