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hydrocarbon compound ” to produce a watch as to exhibit these formative 
powers, and this is, indeed, a very feeble expression of the impossibility. 
I find in Nature * the following passage, which presents before us the 
most recent aspect of the “ struggle for life ” amongst the theories — “ the 
brood of folly without father bred ” — which succeed each other like froth 
on the waves of time. 
“ He (Auerbach) tries to controvert the statements of Strasburger, and 
sums up thus : — 1. The longitudinally striated body, in the interior of the 
cell, is not the ‘ nucleus,’ but the middle part of the so-called ‘ Karyolitic 
figure,’ and therefore a product of the mixing of the special substance of the 
nucleus loith the surrounding protoplasm ; and 2, that the young nuclei do 
not develop by the fission of the mother nucleus .” 
From this I learn that the nucleus theory is insufficient, and that the 
protoplasmic explanation is devoid of all eal foundation, since the special 
substance of the nucleus, which no doubt plays an important part, is 
different from protoplasm , and the two require to be mixed. 
And, moreover, how does the existence and coalescence of these two 
hyaline globules consist with the doctrine, that “the germinal element 
consists of a simple primordial cell ” ? As stated near the close of this lecture, 
“ the formative or organizing property resides in the living substance of every 
organized cell, and in each of its component molecules ” ! The formative 
or organizing property resides in every cell, and also in every molecule 
complete— of course in each, or the statement has no meaning. Now, 
I know not how many cells there are in the ovum of a mammal, but, 
according to a calculation made by Mr. Sorby, the number of molecules 
in the germinal vesicle of the mammalian ovum is such, that if one 
molecule were to be lost in every second of time, the whole would not 
be exhausted in 17 years. Every one of these has attached to it the 
formative property, requiring only the materia to produce the number 
of animals above stated, say about 31,500,000 multiplied by 17. 
Certainly, the molecules, or atoms — plain oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, 
and carbon must be greatly surprised at this sudden accession to their 
powers — properties conferred upon them, not by their creation, but suddenly, 
by the fertilization of the ovum, and liable to be as suddenly withdrawn, 
if anything should happen to the structure which they compose. We are not 
informed what then becomes of all these vast and varied attributes of the 
atoms, which “ explain, in the most materialistic fashion, the transmission 
of the organic and other properties and resemblances between the parent 
and offspring.” 
On behalf of these atoms, and of what we call chemistry, in which we 
suppose that we have learned something about their nature, I must 
protest against the thoroughly unscientific way in which they are treated 
in the above statements. 
* September 20, 1877. Review of Biology of Blunts. 
