^^^. 



THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE 



425 



' ^ay take 



ft 



)uld 



Vf 



seeiB lilr 



ISE. 



>t than i 



in 



■ir 



or of an anil' 

 he mere size i 

 '^ to this sin:.' 



janisms tliati;^ 



,t always evok; 



some unboE 

 f the massl'i 

 :he same lawii 

 and moK f' 



many small 3f'' 



f 



ge 



olved. 

 as it is 



Itff 



i 



a^v 



:ider fel 



le oa^ 



urreDce a 



^ 



I 



^ 



;ion5 



, which t"^^'. 



I 



isms 



1 



we 



'J ve D 



ha\ 



,rs 



the oc*^ 



of some of the more striking metamorphoses. It must 

 be recollected, that in all the aquatic plants in which 

 these changes have been noticed, the chlorophyll cor- 



4 



puscles become incorporated with the protoplasmic sub- 

 stances, and so help to constitute the spherical masses 

 out of which the new organisms are to be evolved. 

 But chlorophyll is a most complex and unstable body, 

 well calculated to excite even more metabolic changes 

 amongst the protoplasm than would otherwise occur 1. 

 M. Fremy describes it as a substance, ' d'une excessive 

 mobilite/ so that its mixture in different proportions^ 

 leading to slight differences in the molecular changes 

 induced^ would be likely to give rise to variable results 



th cases^toki;^ in the metamorphic processes taking place within the 



same vegetable cell or algoid filament^ or within similar 



filaments on different occasions^. 



^ These masses of matter are indeed so unstable and so prone to 

 undergo change that I have found it quite impossible to preserve them 

 unaltered as microscopical specimens — although I have tried almost 

 every known means of mounting them. They soon lose their colour 

 and all their characteristic appearances ; and yet when the tissues of 

 higher animals are mounted in some of the same fluids they will remain 

 comparatively unaltered for years. '''-' 



* 



^ *Compt. Rend/ 1865, p. 1S8. According to Fremy, chlorophyll is 

 a peculiar sort of coloured fatty substance which undergoes a kind of 

 saponification under the influence of bases ; leading to the production of 

 phylloxantbijte, a yellow neutral body, and a bluish-green fatty acid, 

 which he proposes to name phyllocya?iic. This latter substance, insoluble, 

 in water, is soluble in sulphuric and hydrochloric acids — producing 

 liquids which, according to circumstances, may be green, reddish-violet, 

 or of a most beautiful blue colour. M. Fremy says :— ,' Voici done un 

 acid retire de la chlorophylle et qui par Taction de certains reactifs peut 



