334 THE ORIGIN OF LIFE 



most important part in directing the development 

 and subsequent history of the cell. If the nucleus 

 has little potentiality of energy, or is lacking in 

 marked characteristics, the cell makes little pro- 

 gress in development and, as in the case of the 

 monera, remains inactive and unformed. Its sim- 

 ple nature therefore would be no indication whatso- 

 ever that such forms correspond in any way to 

 the more primitive forms of life, any more than 

 that such inferior types as still survive are neces- 

 sarily in their present forms more like primitive 

 organisms than the higher ones. 



The types which are handed down to us are 

 dependent for their properties chiefly upon those 

 of the nucleus, and this in turn is dependent for 

 its properties upon the peculiar type of dynamical 

 configuration which the constituent particles of 

 that nucleus have as in the course of ages now 

 assumed. 



Although we may agree with Weismann that 

 acquired habits are not transmitted from one 

 generation to another ; there may be, and most 

 probably is, a steady change slowly but surely 

 taking place in the substances which constitute 

 the nucleus of the cell. 



It may take ages for any marked change to 

 occur, and the evolution in biogen may be as 

 slow as that in the elements and solar systems. 



We have seen how it is that the asymmetric 

 structure of living substance can be accounted 

 for on the same hypothesis, of spiral configura- 



