FISSION—GEMMATION., 4! 
portions, and the parent-creature is resolved into a 
swarm of off-shoots. 
This multiplication by mere division of the mass pre- 
supposes that the organism thus reproducing itself pos- 
sesses no high complexity. The bisection of a beetle 
or a bird is inconceivable as a means of propagation. 
Yet Stein’s valuable observations on the reproductive 
process of the Infusoria, make us acquainted with 
organisms standing far above these simple so-called 
Monera, of which the subdivisions undergo a series of 
profound metamorphoses, before separating as self- 
dependent individuals, This transformation, combined 
with fission, leads to reproduction by gemmation. 
As the fission of these low organisms depends on the 
attainment of a certain limit of growth conditional on 
adequate nourishment, the case now more frequently 
occurs that the individual discharges the superfluity of 
material obtained at a definite part of the body, and 
forms a bud or gemmule. We are already acquainted 
with reproduction by gemmation in the simplest organ- 
ism, the cell; for all healing and cicatrization in higher 
beings, even to the re-integration of the mutilated limbs 
of amphibians, is effected only by the reproduction by 
fission and gemmation of the elementary morphological 
constituents. But it lies in the nature of the process 
of gemmation, that it should extend far higher than 
fission in the scale of organisms; it is the origination 
of a new being from one already existing, the latter, 
meanwhile, preserving its individuality wholly or for 
the greater part, and yet being able to transfer to the 
progeny its own characteristics in their full integrity. 
The simplest case of gemmation is where the parent 
