26 



Life and Love. 



IV. 



THE DIVISION OF LABOR. 



HEN the amoeba and certain other one- 

 celled forms of life reproduce by simple 

 division, we see the whole substance of 

 ^M^'!^'i'T\/ '■^^ creature resolving into its offspring. 

 When the amoeba becomes two, which 

 of the two is parent, which is offspring? 

 We cannot tell. In size they are the 

 same, in structure the same, there is no 

 childhood on the part of one, no paren- 

 tal care on the part of the other. The 

 amoeba, in multiplying, gives all ; its 

 whole substance is involved in the change. 

 So when, to further the ends of 

 reproduction, two single-celled be- 

 ings unite, which is father, which 

 mother? Again the question can- 

 not be answered. 



Both parents are alike, except 

 in this : in some wa\' different 

 magnetisms appear to animate 

 them ; although seeming to us 

 alike, they apparently exert upon 

 each other the powerful attractive 

 force of opposite poles of the magnet. 



