THE GENERAL CONSTITUTION OF LIVING BEINGS. 1%5 
philosophy, since it is mixed with the study of the produc- 
tion of organized beings generally. Robin’s researches 
have contributed in large measure to the advance of knowl- 
edge as to these obscure phenomena. 
-Every organized substance, which is nourished and de- 
veloped, effects the appearance of new anatomical elements 
in its neighborhood. It tends to create new forms and 
new activity about it. One element may engender another 
like it by segmentation, that is, by breaking up into two 
or several parts. In cells with nuclei, we observe first the 
breaking up of the nucleus, and then the individualization 
of the contents of the cell about the little secondary nuclei 
thus formed. Soa cell is the point of origin of three or 
four new cells, each of which becomes the seat of exactly 
the same phenomenon. There is, in this case, a sort of 
partitioning off effected in the contents of the cell in the 
course of its growth. A second mode of production of 
anatomical elements is gemmation. In this case there 
forms at one of the points of the parent element a bulge, or 
hernia, from which results another element distinct from 
the first. And this proceeding, like that of segmentation, 
is much more like a reproduction than a birth. 
Let us consider the third mode. In this the anatomi- 
cal elements are born in full completeness within and at the 
expense of a living liquid, issuing from already-existing 
anatomical elements. ‘This liquid, called blastema, is made 
up of immediate principles, which proceed from a transu- 
dation of the organized substance, into the interstices of 
which it flows. The blastema is eminently the fertiliz- 
ing liquid, the secret region in which are condensed the 
creative forces of life, making themselves evident by a con- 
tinuous elaboration of cells, fibres, and tubes, which are 
the rudiments of tissues and organs. In it a very tiny 
nucleus at first makes its appearance, which little by little 
envelops itself with solidified matter, that ends by gaining 
