ON THE DIRECTIVITY OF LIFE. 



251 



ingredient in the brain ; and iron gives the red colour to the 

 blood, etc. Beside all this, the blood never stops to deposit its 

 ingredients ; as a train does its parcels. In addition it picks up 

 Oxygen at the station called the Lungs for all the body to 

 respire, by oxidising it, supplying warmth and energy for all the 

 work to be done. 



Lastly, as a train takes back " returned empties," so the blood 

 brings to the lungs and discharges the waste product of Carbonic 

 acid gas into the air. 



Similar procedures take place in plants, though in a simpler 

 way. A plant is built up of cells, and the cell- walls are composed 

 of a substance containing only the three elements C,H,0, called 

 " Cellulose." How could this inert vegetable matter be shaped 

 into cells having all sorts of sizes and forms by " blind forces " 

 without some directivity to guide them ? A lump of clay might 

 just as easily form itself into a brick, as Carbon, Hydrogen and 

 Oxygen construct a cell. The cell-wall is not living, it is the life 

 in the protoplasm within the cell which makes the former secrete 

 the cellulose and so construct the cell. 



Some writers would place the " directivity " in the matter of 

 the protoplasm and consequently call it " purposive matter " ; 

 but the elements composing it are C,0,H,N,S,P, etc., but not 

 one of these has, nor any, nor all in combination, any power 

 per se to do anything. It is solely the life in the protoplasm 

 which is the possessor of directivity. 



But where or what is it that may be called the " centre of 

 life." It is the nucleus within the protoplasm, whether this be 

 bounded by a cellulose covering, or not, as in animals. The 

 nucleus is one of the most extraordinary things in the w^orld. 

 Omitting many details, it looks like a chain lying loosely, but 

 not neatly coiled, within a spherical membrane, outside of which 

 is the protoplasm of the cell. Its first duty is to make two 

 cells out of one. The chain divides into a definite number of 

 pieces of the same lengths which take the form of a U. Now 

 appear fine lines like a spindle, the ends forming two " poles," 

 the broader part is on the " equator." Each U splits in two, 

 forming two U's. These arrange themselves round the equator 

 and are attached by their ends to the " meridians." Half of 

 them glide along these lines till they reach one pole, the other 

 half similarly reach the other pole. There they appear to 

 exude some substance which unites the U's, end to end, so that 

 a new chain is formed, now called the daughter nucleus. Now 

 begins the formation of the new cell-wall right through the 

 equator up to the old cell-wall ; and thus two cells are formed. 



