PROCESSES OF LIFE REVEALED BY THE MICROSCOPE. 385 



All organisms, great or small, are but developments of minute germs 

 budded off by the parent or parents, and the way in which these minute 

 beginnings develop into perfect forms like their parents can only be 

 followed by the aid of a microscope. Indeed, in no field of biology 

 has the microscope done such signal service in revealing the processes 

 of life. 



The method of the production of a new being with the amoeba, as we 

 have just seen, is for the parent to give itself entire to its offspring — 

 the parent ceasing to be in producing its offspring. With some other 

 lowly forms a part of the body of the parent buds out, grows, and 

 finally falls off as an independent organism or remains connected with 

 the parent to form a colony. In the vegetable world a familiar exam- 

 ple of a colony is represented by the plant that the children call "old 

 hen and chickens." 



In the higher animals, however, where specialization is carried to its 

 extreme limit, some myriads of cells forming the body are set apart to 

 produce motion, others digest food, still others think and feel, while 

 comparatively few, the germ cells, are destined for the continuation of 

 the race. In the higher and highest forms especially, all observation 

 goes to show that the life energy, not satisfied with the mere vitaliza- 

 tion of matter and a dead level of excellence, is aiming at perpetual 

 ascent, greater mastery over matter and its physical forces. For the 

 more certain attainment of this end, the production of offspring is no 

 longer possible for one individual; two wholly separate individuals 

 must join, each contributing its share of the living matter which is to 

 develop into a new being. In this way the accumulated acquirements 

 of two are united with the consequent increase in the tendencies and 

 impulses for modification and nearly double the protection for the off- 

 spring. Thus, in striking contrast to the amoeba, where the single 

 parent gives all of itself to form offspring and in so doing disappears 

 and loses its identity, in the higher forms, while two must unite to form 

 the offspring, the parents remain and retain their individuality and the 

 ability to produce still other offspring. The process by which this is 

 accomplished may be traced step by step with the microscope. A germ 

 cell of the father and one of the mother fuse together, and from this 

 new procreative cell formed by the fusion of two, with all their possi- 

 bilities combined, the new individual arises. This certain knowledge 

 is the result of the profound investigation of the last few years, and 

 shows the literalness of the scriptural statement, "they shall be one 

 flesh." (See Plate XII.) 



After this fusion of the father and mother germ cells the single cell 

 thus formed, like the amoeba, divides into two, and these into four and 

 so on, but unlike the amoeba all the cells remain together. Within this 

 cellular mass, as if by an unseen builder, the cells are deftly arranged 

 in their place, some to form brain, some heart, some the digestive tract, 

 others for movement; so that finally from the simple mass of cells, 

 originally so alike, arises the complex organism, fish or bird, beast or 

 S jh 96 25 



