AMCEBA 121 



The difference between Amoeba and the frog may be 

 stated in another way. Viewed broadly, the 

 o? AmiEba! V formation of a germ by the frog is a separation 

 of the body into two portions, one small — the 

 germ — and another large, in which the individuality of 

 the parent is continued. The parent consists mainly of 

 energids which are specialised or differentiated for the per- 

 formance of certain functions in the body, and are therefore 

 unable to produce energids of other kinds. The germ is an 

 energid which is not thus specialised, and may therefore be 

 said to be " undifferentiated," though of course it has an 

 organisation of its own. Now the substance of the special- 

 ised energids of the parent body is mortal : that is to say, 

 sooner or later it undergoes natural death. But the germ 

 contains substance which is immortal : that is to say, unless 

 it be devoured, or starved, or poisoned, or fail to find a 

 mate, or meet with some other fatality, it will not die a 

 natural death, but in givjng rise to a new adult organism 

 gives rise also to another generation of germs, in which it 

 continues to exist within the adult organism until the 

 latter in turn sets free germs. The difference between 

 Amoeba and animals like it on the one hand, and higher 

 animals like the frog on the other, lies in the fact that in 

 the former there are no body-cells, but the whole body has 

 the immortality of germ-substance. 1 The fission of Amoeba 

 is a separation of the body into two similar products, 

 neither of which can be said, in virtue either of size or of 

 mortality, to represent the parent. There are two offspring, 

 but the parent has disappeared. 



In a later chapter (p. 144) there will be found descriptions 

 of organisms known as Entamoeba, closely related to 

 Amoeba, which are parasitic within the body of man. 



1 That is not to say that Amceba does not contain some substance 

 comparable with the body-substance of the frog, but only that if such 

 substance be present it is not contained in special energids which part 

 from the germs and die. 



