1 882.] Organic Physics. 483 



And such a result must very strongly tend to occur, from the 

 vigorous attraction between acid and basic chemical radicals. 

 Many other unions might take place, between the remaining cells 

 of the continued division. Thus the final result of the division 

 of a single normal cell, would be the reproduction, from the union 

 of its many daughter cells, of numerous normal cells, differing 

 perhaps considerably in their degree of homogeneity, and in the 

 completeness of their polar balance, yet each capable of setting 

 up a new life cycle. 



If now we give this polarity another name, and call it sexual 

 polarity, new light may be thrown upon the life problem. Life is 

 continuous, but not in the individual. The individual tends to- 

 wards chemical inertness and final death. The continuity of 

 life exists only in the race; and such, under our hypothesis, 

 must be the law governing* the development of the organic life 

 units. Division, which is their only available method of contin- 

 ued growth, brings them more and more towards chemical inert- 

 ness and loss of vitality. Reunion of oppositely polarized germs, 

 which have arisen from the original individual, restores the life 

 activity by the production of a new vitalized individual. The life 

 energy, failing in the individual, is restored in the race. 



If we replace the words acid and basic polarity by male and 

 female polarity, the cycle of life opens out before us. A normal 

 unit or germ possesses balanced male and female energies. Con- 

 tinued division produces a multitude of new cells, some with an 

 excess of male, some of female energy. As either energy weak- 

 ens, the life energy of the new unit weakens. Each of these 

 cells is a male or a female germ. The union of two of opposite 

 sex produces a fertilized germ, in which the balance of male and 

 female energies is restored, and which is, therefore, capable of 

 jetting up a new cycle of development. All that we know of the 



<te development of Protozoan animals is in accordance with this 

 Hypothesis. And evidently, if the sexual polarities were balanced 

 »n the original Protozoan, they must be balanced in all its descen- 



ants taken as a whole; so that the degree of opposite polarities, 

 and the numbers of each sex, must continue equal. And as in 

 Ul e reunion of germs, it is highly improbable that out of the vast 

 numbers produced, two of exactly balanced sexual polarity should 

 "J<*t. therefore the new individuals are very likely to be specially 

 ™ a| e or fe ma l e in condition, possessing some excess of acid or 



aS,c ener gy 'n their chemical organization. 

 [To be continued.'] ■ 



