. 
Limits oF DivisiBILITy oF Living Matrrr 333 
be the case to a sufficient extent to interfere with the devel- 
opment. Fertilized eggs of Arbacia were kept in normal 
sea-water until they had reached the eight-, sixteen-, and 
thirty-two-cell stages, when the eggs were put into water 
which had been diluted to a sufficient extent. The mem- 
brane burst, and a portion of the egg contents flowed out, as 
in the case of the unfertilized egg, only with this difference, 
that in this case the extraovate consisted of a larger number 
of cells. Nevertheless, the result was the same as in eggs 
which were made to burst before cleavage had begun. When 
the separated pieces were sufficiently large—greater than 
one-eighth of the entire mass of the egg—they developed 
into a pluteus; when they were smaller than this, they 
reached only the gastrula or blastula stage. If a differen- 
tiation had occurred in the eight-cell stage, so that the 
individual cells could give rise only to certain tissues, or- 
gans, or regions of the body, we would expect that, when 
only about eight of the cells from an egg in the thirty-two- 
cell stage were separated from the main mass, we should 
obtain only a conglomeration of different fragments of tis- 
sues, organs, etc., but not an entire embryo, which is, how- 
ever, not the case. It may also happen, as I have just 
mentioned in the case of the uncleaved eggs, that the cells 
in their sliding motions distribute themselves so that they 
do not form a blastula; but this does not occur oftener in 
these eggs than in those which were ruptured before cleav- 
age began. 
8. After this digression we will return to our main 
theme, and ask the question whether it makes any difference 
what portion of the protoplasm is cut out of an egg. It 
might be that the egg is not completely isotropic. The 
protoplasm always begins to flow out at the point at which 
the membrane is ruptured. It can easily be shown, how- 
ever, that the seat of the rupture may be at any point in the 
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