218 THE EVOLUTION OF CONTINUITY 



If the independent protoplast or oell is our unit, it is 

 obvious that in the Discontinuous Multicellular Individual 

 we recognise no symmetry of form, for our subject is the 

 Symmetry of Continuity. At the same time this Individual 

 type, when theoretically complete, or composed of nothing 

 but gametes, may lay claim to Symmetry of Numbers ; for 

 the complete Individual should be equal to 2 to the Nth, 

 a number exactly divisible by 2, or multiples of 2. This 

 symmetry of numbers is, however, in no way concerned in 

 the production of symmetry of form in organisms composed 

 of many cells, for without some special factor we could not 

 expect the continuity of 2 to the Nth to make a symmetrical 

 organism, or a number of such organisms. And it may 

 also be remarked that cell-division into 2, 4, 8, 16 cells, 

 and so on, can have no real influence in producing a sym- 

 metrical organism, though in the early stages of development 

 it doubtless assists the work of the moulding factor. 



Our proposition may be summed up as follows : That 

 symmetry of form in living organisms has appeared as the 

 result of the action of symmetrical or evenly balanced 

 external forces on the developing new type ; that such 

 symmetry as we can recognise in the ascending scale of 

 Continuity has been the inevitable accompaniment of the 

 Continuity exhibited ; that Environment, in many aspects, 

 was the moulder, her material being the plastic, similar, 

 Many ; and that numbers, not symmetrical numbers, was 

 all that Environment required for her task. 



It is in harmony with foregoing pages that we put 

 forward forces acting in terms of Attraction and Repulsion 

 as the producers of symmetry of hving form. That is, 

 the same forces which have been opposed to each other 

 in the evolution of Continuity ; and, as in that matter, it 

 is to the dominance of Attraction that most of the credit 

 is due. 



As the producer of Symmetry, Attraction may be said 

 to have acted in three main ways. 



I. As Terrestrial Attraction. 

 II. As Solar Attraction. 



III. As Food-attraction, and other forms of attraction 

 acting in a similar way. 



