ON THE STRUCTURE OF CELLS 149 



handed on from cell to cell by the subdivision of the 

 ultimate nucleus ; something equivalent to the ema- 

 nation in the case of radio-active elements, which, 

 as we have seen, when acting as the substance of the 

 nucleus in artificial cells, can give rise to their repro- 

 duction or multiplication almost without limit. 



From the action of radio-active bodies on organic 

 media we can form some conception as to the action 

 of such more complex vital units on the organic 

 cell. The analogy is too striking to be passed over 

 by one who has followed and entered into the 

 minute study of the two classes of phenomena. 



The source of energy in vital actions which Sir 

 Oliver Lodge would ascribe to something immaterial 

 would thus be stored up in such vital units in the 

 sether itself, and seem to spring from ultra-material 

 sources, not subject at first sight, nor indeed 

 directly, to its material connections, although of 

 course ultimately resolvable to the dynamical laws 

 of Nature, much in the same way as the source 

 of energy in the atom of radium can be traced 

 to dynamical laws by the motion of aggregates of 

 electrons. 



Even in the most developed organisms, as in Man, 

 there would be this ultra-material source of energy, 

 which was part of the vital energy of the parent, 

 and which may survive the material dissolution of the 

 individual organism. This vital substance, element 

 or unit, this source of energy, may be all of us that 

 survives when we have shuffled off this mortal coil ! 



This unit, too, will no doubt disintegrate in time. 



