Tl' 



374 



THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 



may rearrange 



molecules of such simple organisms 

 themselves, and, under the influence of disturbino- con- 

 ditions, may fall into new, simple and compound modes 

 of aggregation. Thus new centres of attraction may 

 arise, new current modes of activity may be initiated 

 and new organic forms may result. So that the con- 

 stituent elements of the previous organism may be still 

 present, living and mobile, although differently com- 

 bined, and variously reacting upon the ethereal pulses 

 of heat and light to which they are subjected. In 

 some such manner must we explain the occurrence of 

 the various metamorphoses of living matter of which 

 we are about to speak. 



1 ' Ann. and Mag. of Nat. Hist.' 1853, vol. xi 



ijcrease in size, 

 k contents and 

 Ik contents at ' 

 jdoR'-brown coL 

 bv-brown nu 



icb surrounds 



ir mucilage 

 ftt between th 

 iibne, into ; 



Nearly twenty years ago. Professor Pringsheim^ 

 called attention to the production of what he believed | it space bet weei 

 to be a peculiar kind of propagative spore, in the cells 

 of young filaments of Sftrogyra jugalts^ and also in 

 certain conjugated cells of the same Alga before, and 

 indeed instead of, the production of the ordinary rest- 

 ing spores. He says he frequently found, in conju- 

 gated filaments, 'that the contents of one or more 

 pairs of conjugated cells were not transformed into 

 the well-known large spore.' They, however, ' became 

 transformed into a number of little cells of regular, 

 definite, and unchangeable form,' whose constant oc- 

 currence led Dr. Pringsheim to conjecture that they 

 were ' more than mere pseudo-forms of decaying cell- 



'* with hne[ 

 formed puji 



°"t of its r, 



kl 



N cell 



" '^^'0 bodi 



or the 



pore. 



lesc 



mothe 



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'Mil 



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inde 



e 



Dr,P.. 



Jiian 



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