I 



THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 



233 



''''' '^% at 

 -pendent 



to forni 



units 



n 



a 



^l^ey separa 

 ' in the other 



ts adduced in 

 inclusion that 

 not, may ori- 

 ethods within 



-e have gooJ 



nit may 



ori' 



ould have in 



• the passage 



Life wouM 



occurrence 



,ns. TotW^ 



of 



i 



livin 

 ium 



. niatt^' 



f 



50^^ 



i 



t 





I 



I 



\ 



these may aggregate^ as a result of which after 

 certain mysterious changes, or more or less 

 directly, there may originate a new-formed ele- 

 ment, reproductive or other. As instances of 

 this process — for which we propose the name 

 Bioerasis ^ — we may cite the mode of formation 

 of ova in Nematoids and in many other animals, 

 of the spore in Vaucherla^ and of the so-called 

 ^gonidial cell' in Nitella. 

 3. New units may arise, without obvious differentia- 

 tion of pre-existing living matter, by the well- 



known processes of fission or gemmation 



Or 



again, new units may arise owing to actually 



w 



existing living matter undergoing a process of 

 differentiation, followed by a simultaneous divi- 

 sion into few or many separate living things 

 by a method, in fact, such as we see occurring in 

 the reproduction of Vrotomyxa or Achlya"^. All 

 such modes of formation of living units we pro- 

 pose to comprise under the term Biodiseresis -^ ■ 



^ From ^los, ' life,' and fcpacns, ' fusion.' We are at present speaking 

 only of the origin of independent units in pre-existing organisms ; and 

 therefore we only incidentally call attention to the most typical instance 

 of this process, viz. the fusion of two originally distinct AmoebiE into 

 a single individual. 



^ In the process of organization of pericardial lymph, otherwise 

 similar, the new-formed units do not separate from one another, and 

 are therefore somewhat less independent. The mode of origin of the 

 reproductive units in Achlya and Pro/owy^a leads us on almost insensibly 

 to the process of BioccBuosis — the products of the molecular re arrange- 

 ment are here multiple instead of single. 



^ From jSios, ' life,* and diaipeats, ' division.' 



ive. 



