GENESIS OF MAN. 33 



reproducing its kind ; i, e., of dividing up into cells like itself, but 

 which could progress no farther. The new cell, on the other hand, 

 is the germ of a highly-organized being. 



This is the second, or ovidum-stage of development which has 

 been impressed upon the germ by the amoeba stage of phyloge- 

 netic development. The human being is now an amoeba. 



The next step in the development of the fecundated germ con- 

 sists in a process of division which takes place in the nucleus. 

 This first divides into two, and the surrounding protoplasm ar- 

 ranges itself into two hemispheres so as to form a double cell. 

 Then each of these two nuclei, with its surrounding protoplasm, 

 goes through the same process, dividing the cell into four parts. 

 The same process is then repeated for each of these parts, and so 

 on, increasing the division in a geometrical progression, until the 

 entire contents of the chorion consist of a mass of closely-aggregated 

 minute cells. 



The form which the fecundated egg has now assumed, is called, 

 from its resemblance to a mulberry, the Morula, and constitutes 

 the third, or Morula-stage of development. It is merely a com- 

 pound form of the simple cell. Instead of one comparatively 

 large cell, it now consists of an aggregated society of small cells. 

 Prof. Haeckel has established a theoretical group of compound 

 amoebae, which he calls Synamoebia, as the phylogenetic ancestral 

 form to which the Morula owes its existence ; but it has been shown 

 by the researches of Archer and Cienkowski into some species 

 of Cystophrys and into the Labryinthulece , that these hypothetical 

 Synamoebia have an actual representation in the fauna of the globe. 

 These creatures are found to consist of formless accumulations of 

 similar simple cells. 



The fourth stage of germinal development is the Blastosphaere- 

 stage. It consists of a transformation of the Morula, which is 

 brought about by the absorption of a clear fluid from the medium 

 in which it is situated, which collects at the centre and crowds the 

 cells outward, pressing them together until they are made to form 

 a single layer upon the inner surface of the chorion, and thus leav- 

 ing the whole interior filled only with the new liquid. The germ 

 is enlarged during the process, from its former diameter of about 

 one-tenth of a line to that of half a line. The cells now forming 

 this single layer have assumed a hexagonal shape, due to their 



