230 THE ORIGIN OF LIFE 



of acting as a nucleus. When these two unite the 

 tendency will be for particles of the nebular type 

 or negative electrons to begin to arrange them- 

 selves in a more or less regular fashion ; the second, 

 or nucleus, would be positive ions. The union of 

 these two would constitute the birth or formation 

 of nuclear substance with a definite character. 

 The cells in which nebulous biogen forms the 

 nuclear substance, or characterless nebulous biogen, 

 would correspond to the ova, and those with the 

 concentrated nuclear substance corresponding to the 

 positive nuclei of atoms would correspond to sperma- 

 tozoa. Now when these two cells unite and the nuclear 

 substances also unite, that substance will acquire a 

 more or less stable configuration depending upon 

 the nature of both nuclear substances ; as if two 

 systems were to come into collision and rotate 

 round each other we should then get a new type 

 of nuclear substance, and this would be the guiding 

 principle in the development of the newly com- 

 bined cell. In a word, the union of biogen con- 

 sisting of positive and negative electricity may be 

 regarded as that which gives rise to a new system 

 which begins to assume some stability of form. 

 The new system thus begins a new career of its 

 own ; and once more the analogy, based upon 

 astronomical considerations of the birth of nuclear 

 substance to which the development of cells is 

 due, is extensible : that nuclear substance no 

 doubt in the course of time, most probably in 

 the course of ages, being in turn converted into 

 mere chemical atoms. Eoughly at least, then, there 



