MISS EMBLETON ON CERA.TA.P1IIS LATANIJB. 103 



problem still more complicated and difficult. Huxley* says: 

 " Every organized being has been formless and will again be 

 formless ; the individual animal or plant is the sum of the 

 incessant changes which succeed one another between these 



two periods of rest." [the individual] " is the sum of 



the phenomena presented by a single life : in other words, it is 

 all those animal forms which proceed from a single egg taken 

 together." 



Herbert Spencer, however, holds a totally different view 

 from that which Huxley formulated. His opinion is given ia 

 the chapter on " Individuality " in the first edition of the 

 ' Principles of Biology,' written in 186i. Admitting the many 

 difficulties which surround the subject, he proceeds to discuss 

 the validity of the theory that the whole product of a single 

 fertilized germ shall be regarded as the true individual, whether 

 such whole product be organized as one or many masses that 

 are partially or completely separate. He thinks this is an 

 undesirable definition, for it involves the application of the 

 word individual to numerous separate living bodies, a meaning 

 strikingly in conflict with the ordinary conception of the word. 

 As an example of this he instances the case of ApJiidce, " where 

 the organism is but an infinitesimal part of the germ-product ; 

 and yet has that completeness required for sexual reproduc- 

 tion [If the individual is constituted by the wliole 



germ-product, whether continuously or discontinuously de- 

 veloped, then, not only must individuality be denied to each 

 of the imperfect Aphides, but also to each of the perfect males 

 and females; since no one of them is more than a minute 

 fraction of the total germ-product] " t- As he cannot therefore 

 adopt this view, he endeavours to " make the best practicable 

 compromise," with the knowledge that there is no definition of 

 individuality which is unobjectionable. The essential idea of the 

 conception of individuality he takes to be union among parts of 

 the object and separateness from other objects ; it also involves 

 the manifestation of Life, which he regards as "the definite 

 combination of heterogeneous changes, both simultaneous and 



* Scientific Memoirs of Thomas Henry Huxley, i. p. 147- Loudon, 1898. 

 (The date of the original paper is 1852.) 



t This sentence is omitted in the 1898 edition. 



