I04 THE ORIGIN OF LIFE 



they are of the same kind ; ordinary bacilli, pro- 

 vided they are of the same type, are found to 

 be also of the same dimensions. These do not 

 show signs which indicate that they have one and 

 all sprung in a process of continuous growth from 

 ultra-microscopic forms. But this is one of the 

 characteristic features of the products now produced 

 by radium. There can be no question that in each 

 case they have sprung from the invisible and 

 grown to such a magnitude as to be seen. We find 

 no such indication with ordinary bacteria. But the 

 radiobes undergo many developments. After six or 

 seven days, and at times even less, they develop 

 nuclei ; and later still they cease to grow and then 

 begin to segregate and multiply. The manner in 

 which they do this has led us to suppose that they 

 are assimilative and automatic, and not altogether, 

 strictly speaking, lifeless things. 



Their growth is no indication of vitality, for 

 crystals not merely grow, but grow to such dimen- 

 sions that in this point no living microscopic 

 organism has any chance to rival them ; crystals, 

 however, do stop growing at some stage or another, 

 else we should have, as someone has insisted, 

 diamonds as large as Mount Etna or the Hima- 

 layas. This, however, does not seem to be^ the 

 point ; when crystals reach their maximum di- 

 mensions do they throw off their superfluous 

 particles and disintegrate themselves ? In other 

 words, do crystals go through the cyclic process, 

 pass into higher forms, and then decay, which is so 



