1887] The Significance of Sex. 233 
Briefly, then, in conclusion, we have shown that the phenom- 
. ena of life are the manifestation of forces that are organized, 
. by being in some way connected with an ultimate unit, which 
unit, by multiplying and differentiating, forms units of a higher 
order; and these units repeat the same process, and so we get 
higher and higher units capable of a more complex life. Only 
in this way is organic life connected with inorganic life. A series 
of discrete degrees separates such life, as we study with the lens, 
from the substances with which the chemist deals. We can study 
the higher stadia morphologically, and only by analogy do we guess 
concerning the nature of the lower. We find the cell a reticu- 
lum of hyaloplasm holding microsomata in its nodes as nuclei. 
We find the soma of a metazoon likewise a reticulum in which 
the cell is the unit. As in the body, all cells come from embry- 
onic or germinal cells, all traceable back to a single egg, so in 
the cell, all the differentiated gemmules, or micelle, or tagmata* 
are descended from nuclear idioplasm, which is itself due to the 
multiplication of a single gemmule. Finally, we find that cell 
phenomena are accompanied by fusion or mixture of idioplasms 
that have had diverse experiences, and in some way the cell-life 
is thereby invigorated. Sex has been evolved as the means of 
effecting such fusions. The distinction of male and female has 
arisen comparatively late and is coupled with very secondary 
characters. 
We have seen that half a dozen different structures are present 
in the cell, and that those in the spermatozoon are transformed 
into the different parts of its structure. Undoubtedly in the 
metamorphosis of all tissue-cells these structures play a part. 
If we could see which of these structures preponderates in a 
given tissue or organ, we could infer that the function of this 
part is similar in the cell to the function of the tissue in the 
soma. 
Gaule’s work on the cytozoan, or paranucleus, which can wan- 
der from cell to cell, and on which the cell-life depends, is yet too 
little known to be criticised. We may expect fuller details when 
Gaule has completed his researches. 
1 The ferments such as zymogen, etc., which are lower in the scale of organiza- 
tion than the bacteria, seem to come in somewhere near the plane occupied by the 
gemmule ; but their relation to the latter is probably at present beyond the scope 
even of a guess. 
