312 SEA-SIDE STUDIES. 



it is not a starting-point, but a station on the grand junction- 

 line of development. No one will venture to assert that the 

 process of Nutrition is other than identical, whether the 

 product evolved from the blood-plasma be a nerve-cell, a 

 muscle-cell, or a gland-cell : different as these products are, 

 they all issue from embryonal cells indistinguishable fiom 

 each other ; and tlie law of Nutrition by which they increase 

 is the same law in all. 



The identity of the process in Reproduction is clearly 

 seen in the following results of Mr R. Q. Couch's observa- 

 tions on the Sertularian Polypes : " At certain seasons of the 

 year they produce cells (capsules) much larger than those of 

 a more pennanent character. These, at first, are composed 

 of the granular pulp of the stem ; afterwards the pulp be- 

 comes furrowed, and finally formed into cells. After a short 

 period they sejjarate from the parent, and undergo the pro- 

 cess of development. If these cells attain a certain size, 

 they are developed into eggs ; if they are stunted by cold, 

 they are formed into Polypes ; Avhile if, from unfavourable 

 causes, they are still smaller, they grow into branches ; and 

 thus we see that, according to circumstances, different organs 

 are capable of being eliminated from the same structure." * 

 In conclusion, let us remember that the egg itself is an out- 

 growth, not a starting-point ; as all know who have made 

 themselves acquainted with the results of embryological 

 research, in which the phases of the genesis of the egg are 

 minutely recorded ; this genesis being the same essential 

 process observed in all other forms of Growth. 



* PemanceNal. IllsL SocitUj Report for 1850, p. 374. 



