REPRODUCTION 



liminary stage of sexual differentiation, the copulation of 

 two equal cells (gameta), is really nothing but a special 

 form of growth. Then, when the two gameta become 

 unequal in the division of labor, when the larger inert 

 macrogameton stores up food in itself, and the smaller, 

 mobile microgameton swims in search of it, we have 

 already expressed the difference between the female 

 ovum and the male sperm-cell. And in this we have the 

 most essential feature of sexual reproduction. 



The reproduction of the organism is often regarded as 

 a perfect mystery of life, and as the vital function which 

 most strikingly separates the living from the lifeless. 

 The error of this dualistic notion is clear the moment 

 one impartially considers the whole gradation of forms 

 of reproduction, from the simplest cell-division to the 

 most elaborate form of sexual generation, in phylogenetic 

 connection. It is obvious all through that transgressive 

 growth is the starting-point in the formation of new 

 individuals. But the same must be said of the multipli- 

 cation of inorganic bodies — the cosmic bodies on the 

 larger scale, crystals on the smaller scale. When a 

 rotating sun passes a certain limit of growth by the 

 constant accession of falling meteorites, nebulous rings 

 are detached at its equator by centrifugal force, and 

 form into new planets. Every inorganic crystal, too, 

 has a certain limit of individual growth (determined by 

 its chemical and molecular constitution). However 

 much mother-water you add, this is never passed, but 

 new crystals (daughter-crystals) form on the mother- 

 crystal. In other words, growing crystals propagate. 



