400 HISTORY OF THE CELL. 



begins with them, and continues without an interrup- 

 tion to the present day ; a splendid narrative, the ma- 

 terials of which it is for science to discover, the glories 

 of which it is for poets to portray. 



Owing to the action of surrounding forces, the outer 

 parts of the original jelly-dot became harder and more 

 solid than the parts within, and so it assumed the 

 shape of the cell or sphere. Its food consisted of 

 microscopic fragments of vegetable matter imbibed 

 through its surface or outer rind, such portions as were 

 not " made up " being expelled or excreted in the 

 same manner as they were taken in. There was no 

 difference of parts, except that the outside was solid 

 and the inside soft. The creature's body was its 

 hand, its stomach, and its mouth. When it had lived 

 a certain time it burst and died, liberating, as it did 

 so, a brood of cells which had slowly ripened within. 

 But sometimes these new cells, instead of being de- 

 tached when they were born, remained cohering to 

 the parent cell, thus making the animal consist of 

 several cells instead of only one. In the first case the 

 process is termed Reproduction ; in the second case it 

 is termed Growth. But the two operations are in 

 reality the same. Growth is coherent reproduction ; 

 Reproduction is detached growth. 



Time goes on. Our animal is now a cell-republic 

 enclosed by a wrapper of solidified and altered cells. 

 Next, in this wrapper a further change takes place. 

 It protrudes into limbs ; a gaping mouth appears. 

 The limbs or tentacles grasp the food and put it 

 withm the mouth ; other limbs sprout forth and carry 

 their owner from place to place. In the meantime the 

 cells within are also changed ; their partitions are 

 removed ; the many-walled apartments are converted 



