ON THE STRUCTURE OF CELLS 133 



The natural cell has most probably a highly com- 

 plicated structure, vastly more complicated than 

 anything that by artificial synthesis we can 

 endeavour to obtain. It is interesting, however, 

 to try to approximate to this highly organised 

 state of matter, even if, as we think, that final 

 stage should never be attained. To come nearer and 

 nearer to it, as the curve of the hyperbola approaches 

 to its asymptote, is it seems the most that by 

 scientific investigation we can hope to arrive at. 



The structure and composition of such artificial 

 cells is sufficient to enable them to perform the 

 functions of organic life, as distinct from such 

 simpler forms of vitality which we at first sup- 

 posed inorganic matter to possess. Thus they can 

 assimilate, grow, pass into higher types, subdivide, 

 multiply, and finally, having gone through the 

 whole cyclic process, disintegrate and lose their 

 structure in the course of time, being sensitive all the 

 while to external stimulation, both electrical and 

 chemical, in various degrees. 



Now the morphology, if we may call it so, of these 

 artificial cells presents to us their structure as another 

 function of their close resemblance to the actual 

 things in Nature, and enables us to realise that the 

 vast complexity of the latter structures, when 

 judged by the results which in some instances give 

 rise to highly developed forms of life, is not so much 

 the function upon which vitality depends, as that to 

 which its subsequent development is due. The 

 actual process of life, even if the cell does admit of 



