134 THE CELL DOCTRINE. 



the power of multiplication by division. That is, 

 nucleoli have all the capabilities of elementary or- 

 ganisms, and are in truth cytodes. Regarded in 

 this light, they are real daughter cells, which have 

 arisen by an endogenous process, and the nucleus is 

 the chamber in which they develop. It is now 

 merely neces«ary for them to find a way out through 

 the body of the mother cell, in order to begin life as 

 independent beings. That^his method of increase 

 has become obsolete in the cases of a majority of cells 

 of higher adult animals, or perhaps only occurs in 

 pathological processes, may be quite true, according 

 to Auerbach, without offering any obstacle in the 

 way of such a hypothesis. In the specialization of 

 function which appears as we ascend the animal 

 series new means of gaining the same end present 

 themselves, while the old vanish or are made use of for 

 other purposes. The phases in the act of propaga- 

 tion of a unicellular organism may be less significant, 

 and have a far different outcome in a unit cell of a 

 more complex creature.* 



The fact of the total or partial disappearance of 

 the nucleus or germinal vesicle shortly before or im- 

 mediately after fecundation, has been amply con- 

 firmed by recent observers, although there are some 

 slight differences in the exact mode of its acceptance. 

 The most important recent contributions on the sub- 



* Auerbach, Organologische Studien, Breslau, 1873-4, or see 

 abstract of Auerbach's paper, by Priestley, in vol. xvi, Quart. 

 Jour. Microsc. Soi., 1876, whence I have obtained the above views 

 of Auerbach with regard to nuclei and nucleoli. 



