The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-01-29

author 10 its transmessye growth. When
in vegetative multiplication. the entire body
is divided into two or more equal parts,
the monogenetic process is called division
or augmentation. When special part
on the other hand separates from the gene
rating organism in the form Of a bud, the
process ia called budding or gemmation'
The essential difference between the two
forms Of asexual generation is that, in dlvis-
ion, the parent disappears In its partial
products (ohildrenl, which are OF the same
age and form. In budding, on the other
hand, the generating parent retains it's
individuality, it Is larger and older than the
young bud. Prof Haeckel holds the fact
that in division or augmentation the in
dividual, as such, Is destroyed. TO be suffi-
olent refutaton OF Weismann's theory OF
the immortality Of the unicellulars.
Nv.
The essential feature of sexual genera
ton Is OF course the coalescence OF two
different cells, female ovum (egg cel)
and male sperm cell. The simple new
cell which arises from the blending Of these
paternal and maternal cells IL the stem cell,
or stem mother of all the cells that make
up the tissues OF the offspring. We are re-
minded that the manifold and intimate rela-
tons which exist In man and the higher
animals between their sexual life and their
higher psychic activity have given rise to
plenty of wonders of life
y Is we'll known that in the case OF GER
tain organisms the male sex has become
superfuous in the course OF time; the ovula
develop without the need of fertilization,
That ia particularly the case in many OF
the artioulates tcrustacea and inseotsl.
Prof. Haeokel recalls that when Siebold
proved at Munich the facts of miraculous
parthenogeneio conception in various in
scots, he was visited by the Catholic Aroh-
bishop ofthe city, who expressed his graft
flcation that there was now scientific
explanation possible of the conception OF
the Virgin Mary. "Siebold had unfortu-
nately to point out to him that the in
ference from the parthenogenesis OF an
articulato to that of vertebrate was not
valid, and that all mammals like all other
yertebrates reproduce exclusively from
impregnated ova.' Our author adds: We
also find parthenogenesis among the meta
phyta, as in the chdrd crinitd, among the
algr. the dntenndrid alpha and the olche-
We are as yet ignorant, for the most part,
OF the causes OF this lapse of fertilization.
Some light has been thrown on it, however,
by recent chemical experiments tthe effect
Of sugar and other water-absorbing solu-
tions>. in which we have succeeded in
parthenogeneucally developing unfertilized
ova.'
The reproduction OF the organism is, as
we have said, often regarded as a perfect
mystery of life and as the vital function
which most strikingly separates the living
from the lifeless. Our author insists that
the error OF this dualistic notion is made
clear the moment one considers impartially
the whole graduation of forms Of reproduce
ton, from the simplest cell division to the
most elaborate form OF sexual generation.
1T Is obvious he says, call through that
transgressive redundanD growth is the
starting point in the formation Of new
individuals But the same must be said
OF the multiplication of inorganic bodies
the oosmic bodies on a larger scale, crys-
tails on a smaller scale. When rotating
sun passes a certain limit OF growth, by
the constant accession of falling meteorites,
nebulous rings are detached at its equator
by centrifugal force and condensed into
new planets. Every inorganic crystal,
too, has a certain limit of individual growth
determined by its chemical and molecular
constitution. However much mother
water you add. this limit is never passed
but new crystals daughter crystals) form
on the mother crystal. In other words.
growing crystals propagate