I20 THE ORIGIN OF LIFE 



finally a new cell will be formed, which in turn will 

 go through the same cyclic process as the parent : 

 and ultimately, when the emanation ceases to be 

 formed, even if that should take a thousand years, 

 the cell will degenerate, and collapse. 



In these respects the whole process resembles life. 

 The continuous adjustment of internal to external 

 relations of the individual with its environment : of 

 assimilation or nutrition as well as of growth, of 

 reproduction and decay. 



However simple and intelligible the process, it 

 fits in with the most elementary and most mechanical 

 conception of life that we possess. And yet how 

 few are there who would look upon so elementary a 

 piece of mechanism, as it might well be called, as 

 anything more than a purely physical analogy of 

 that higher and vastly more complicated mechanism 

 which we call organic life ! 



There is no metabolism, unless the cyclic process 

 which the cell itself goes through in a period of a 

 thousand, or more probably two thousand years, can 

 be considered as its equivalent. But however in- 

 teresting the formation of these cells may be, and 

 however like and yet distinct from organic life, they 

 are not the same as radiobes. The mode of division 

 of the cells in the two cases is totally difi'erent. The 

 radiobes divide up much in the same fashion as yeast- 

 cells are well known to do. That is, they divide into 

 clearly cut segments or sections, with angular edges, 

 which cells or bubbles whose boundary is under the 



