28 Dr. F. von Wagner on 



natural conception in the doctrine of asexual reproduction by 

 gemmation and fission in the place of the confusion and 

 arbitrary interpretations which have hitherto existed will 

 meet with any approval among my fellow scientists the future 

 will decide ; it would be enough for me if a stimulus should 

 thereby be given which shall cause better insight and more 

 comprehensive information than I myself possess to win a 

 knowledge of the truth. 



II. 



According to the meaning of the word, " fission " signifies 

 the simple separation of one (or more) portions from an inte- 

 gral whole, therefore the division of an originally united 

 whole into two or more parts. If we cut a block of stone 

 into three portions we effect a fission : the process of separa- 

 tion itself is the fission. Herein it makes no difference 

 whether the sections which now exist are of the same size or 

 not and whether they were actually produced simultaneously 

 or one after another. If for the block of stone I substitute 

 a crystal which is in statH nascendi, and therefore continually 

 increasing in size or growing, and cut it into three pieces, 

 this is equally a fission. The concurrent increase in size, or 

 growth, does not affect the process ; it is a natural property of 

 the crystal and is a normal phenomenon. 



The idea conveyed by the term fission as applied to the 

 inorganic body (and as it is also applied in daily life) is thus 

 exhausted with the actual process of division, and is seen to 

 be independent of : — 



(1) The size of the fission products ; 



(2) The time of their origin ; and 



(3) The presence or absence of a normal increase in 



size (growth). 



In order to be able to transfer to organisms the conception 

 of fission which we have gained, an appeal might be made 

 to the fact that people have been induced to designate as 

 fission certain forms of reproduction in animals, precisely 

 because they corresponded to the usual interpretation of this 

 expression. But if, among the asexual modes of animal 

 reproduction, we should succeed in finding one (or more) 

 which would admit of being classed as fission without 

 straining the limits of the conception as enunciated above, not 

 only would the intended transference be justified thereby, but 



