36 THE EVOLUTION OF CONTINUITY 



simple of living organisms whose vital phenomena are at 

 all observable — the freshwater Amceba ; a tiny jelly-like 

 particle possessing the power of changing its shape and 

 position by protrusions and retractions of its substance. 

 But the amoeba is only comparatively simple ; it has evolved 

 through ages to its present condition, and is the latest 

 edition of some much more primitive prototype. We may 

 imagine this to have been smaller and more homogeneous 

 in structure, and unprovided with a nucleus, in the accepted 

 sense of the term, though necessarily possessing some system 

 of control. Nevertheless, the basoplasm of such an elemen- 

 tary organism would be composed of highly complex 

 " plasmolecules," and obedient to the forces of Attraction 

 and Repulsion the component atoms of each, controlled by 

 their attraction-centres, would unite, separate, and reunite 

 in ceaseless change. There would be countless atomic cycles 

 run, and through them each plasmolecule would all the 

 time be trying to attain full satisfaction and complete 

 equilibrium on a definite plan. 



The Plasmolboxjlae Cycle. 



The different characteristics of dead and living matter 

 may reasonably be attributed to marked differences of 

 molecular constitution or plan. They cannot be attributed 

 to electronic or atomic differences, for the elementary atoms 

 composing living matter are all found in non- vital combina- 

 tions. Any analysis of living matter is impossible, as it 

 involves death, and becomes the analysis of dead matter; 

 but even so there is revealed a molecular complexity far 

 higher than that of dead inorganic matter. The result of 

 death is, moreover, inevitable Discontinuity or Decomposi- 

 tion, the dead organism breaking up in its parts, tissues, 

 cells, and molecules ; and it is credible that the molecule 

 of living basoplasm, the " plasmolecule," is a far more 

 complex structure than that of dead proteid, which might 

 be pictured as a part of its disintegration. 



And one is drawn to presume an extreme complexity 

 of the basoplasmic molecule in order to explain certain 

 phenomena of living growth, and especially why it is that 

 so much cell-multiplication is required after a conjugation 



