EDMUND MONTGOMERY—ORGANIC REPRODUCTION. 
17 
entiation and specification is proved by their being the foundation upon 
which the highly complex organization of insects is notably wrought. 
I am happy to say that prominent biologists are beginning to realize, 
that despite ontogenetic appearances to the contrary, the complex organ¬ 
ism is not a mere aggregate of inferior beings, but an essentially indis- 
cerptible and infinitely higher individual. 
Professor Frommann, in the article “ Zelle,” published 1890 as part of 
the Real-Encyklopaedie der gesammten Heilkunde, sums up our present 
knowledge regarding cells in the following words: “According to what 
has been brought forward, we can no longer, as was formerly the case, 
regard the body as being formed by a mere conglomerate of cells, com¬ 
pletely separated from one another by membranes and having independ¬ 
ent lives. There exist, on the contrary, in the tissues and organs such 
numerous connections between equal and disparate cells, that it is en¬ 
tirely justifiable to regard the body as a unitary mass of living substance, 
as a synplasm.” 
And Strasburger in a recent inaugural address acknowledges the unity 
of the organic individual. He says: “ Until recently it was accepted 
that there existed no communication between the plasma of plant-cells. 
It had to be asked, how under such conditions is the co-operation of the 
sundry cells in the service of the organism as a whole at all possible, and 
how can the plant as a unitary being be thus formed. The problem 
found its solution in the discovery that the plasm of the different cells 
is connected by protoplasmic filaments. These traverse from cell to cell, 
and cause thus the living substance of a plant to be continuous. The 
plant, therefore, like the animal, constitutes a unitary living organism.” 
This is a good beginning in the right direction, and I confidently 
await further corroboration of the views forced upon me, long ago, by 
the diligent study of the living substance. 
