EDMUND MONTGOMERY-ORGANIC REPRODUCTION. 
13 
finder, if I was not convinced that I could replace what I have sought to 
overthrow by a more valid construction. 
Reproduction can not be explained without having first gained a cor¬ 
rect conception of the constitution of the living substance. 
First of all, then, my observation of the living substance, or so-called 
protoplasm, has taught me that it is not like crystals, composed of 
merely aggregated units or molecules, held together by the physical 
bond of cohesion. On the contrary, it forms a single indiscerptible 
unit, whose constituent elements are all interdependently united by def¬ 
inite chemical bonds; such bonds as determine the specific nature of sub¬ 
stances as a whole. The many different hydrocarbons, for instance, are 
all composed of the same constituent elements, but receive their distin¬ 
guishing qualities from the manner these elements are chemically com¬ 
bined. In the living substance, likewise, only a few essential elements 
enter into its composition, but these form by means of chemical coher¬ 
ency a most specifically individuated unit. 
The living substance being thus a definite chemical compound of an 
exceedingly complex constitution, its vital functions prove to be inde¬ 
pendently due to a definite cycle of chemical activities involving all parts 
of the living unit. This chemical solidarity of all essential functions of 
life can be most readily ascertained by watching with unbiased mind 
what takes place in amoebae when in motion. The granular structure of 
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their substance reveals b} r means of the motion of the granules the direc¬ 
tion and extent of the vital movement. 
Now, how is this vital movement of the protoplasmic being set going 
and kept up ? In some favorable specimens it becomes quite evident 
that the vital movement depends on a chemical process of alternate dis¬ 
integration and reintegration undergone by the living substance. When 
the protoplasm of an amoeba flows out, so as to form what is called a 
process or pseudopodium, it encounters in the resistance of the medium 
a disintegrating influence. Thereupon its substance shrinks within itself. 
It is obvious that, in order to be rendered fit to flow out again, the dis¬ 
integrated substance has to reintegrate itself. Consequently, this funda¬ 
mental function of alternate disintegration and reintegration draws with 
it, on the one hand, the elimination of the waste products of disintegra¬ 
tion seen to be effected by means of depurative vesicles; and, on the other 
hand, the restitution of the disintegrated individual by means of com- 
plemental material furnished by the medium. Assimilation, hitherto so 
occult an operation, turns out to be simply the reintegration of the liv¬ 
ing substance through combination with complemental material. When 
the living substance assimilates foreign material or pabulum it does not 
do this, as generally believed, by transmuting it into other separate liv¬ 
ing beings like itself, or into other vital units of which it is believed 
