70 Natural Salvation. 



life, the biophors are little organized ; but, under the in- 

 fluence of the environment, as evolution proceeded, the 

 biophors assumed certain persistent relationships to each 

 other and formed themselves in fixed groups. Such groups 

 determined the character of the cell, and to these Professor 

 Weismann has given the name of cell-determinants. 



Numbers of determinants are associated in Ijirger 

 groups, termed ids, and ids again as idants : relationships 

 of biophors which form parts of the centrosome and 

 chromosome of the cell. 



(7) It is Professor Weismann's conception that death 

 — touching its origin — is intimately connected with 

 sexual reproduction. 



That the protozoons are naturally immortal and that 

 death is confined to the metazoons has been refuted since 

 Professor Weismann put forth his hypothesis in 1881. 

 Maupas has shown that certain protozoons exhibit the 

 phenomena of senescence and die out from intracellular 

 causes ; also that protozoons conjugate sexually and are 

 thereby restored. The hardship of the terrestrial habitat 

 affects even the lowest, simplest forms of life, perhaps 

 even the " biophors " themselves. The latest advances in 

 physics indicate that "atoms" tend to waste away, and 

 future researches may prove that the ions and electrons 

 are not stable units. Avoiding death is less a question of 

 ultimate, incorruptible atoms than of making scientific 

 repair excel natural waste. 



