00000141.htm

130 HERBERT SPENCER

detached inanimate engine; it is a system which has summed
up in it the long results of time, the history of ages. Its
rhythms and periodicities and crises puzzle us because
they originated under conditions which obtained untold
millennia ago. Thus some processes in higher animals may
have had originally a reference to tides from the reach of
which their present possessors are far withdrawn.

We have entered on this digression partly for clearness
sake, and partly to explain why Spencer had, as we think,
very limited success in his answer to the question: Why
does sexual reproduction occur ? The curious reader may be
referred to the discussion of these problems in The Evolution
of Sex, Contemporary Science Series, Revised Edition,
1901.

The Germ-Cells.—But we cannot leave the interest-
ing chapter on genesis without referring to another of
Spencer's conclusions, which does not seem to us to
be quite consistent with facts.

"The marvellous phenomena initiated by the meet-
ing of sperm-cell and germ-cell, or rather of their
nuclei, naturally suggest the conception of some quite
special and peculiar properties possessed by these
cells. It seems obvious that this mysterious power
which they display of originating a new and complex
organism, distinguishes them in the broadest way
from portions of organic substance in general.
Nevertheless, the more we study the evidence the
more are we led towards the conclusion that these
cells are not fundamentally different from other cells."
The evidence he gives is: (l) that small fragments of
tissue in many plants and inferior animals may develop
into entire organisms; (2) that the reproductive
organs producing eggs and sperms are organs of low
organisation, with no specialities of structure " which
might be looked for, did sperm-cells and germ-cells



	130 HERBERT SPENCER detached inanimate engine; it is a system which has summed up in it the long results of time, the history of ages. Its rhythms and periodicities and crises puzzle us because they originated under conditions which obtained untold millennia ago. Thus some processes in higher animals may have had originally a reference to tides from the reach of which their present possessors are far withdrawn. We have entered on this digression partly for clearness sake, and partly to explain why Spencer had, as we think, very limited success in his answer to the question: Why does sexual reproduction occur ? The curious reader may be referred to the discussion of these problems in The Evolution of Sex, Contemporary Science Series, Revised Edition, 1901. The Germ-Cells.—But we cannot leave the interest- ing chapter on genesis without referring to another of Spencer's conclusions, which does not seem to us to be quite consistent with facts. "The marvellous phenomena initiated by the meet- ing of sperm-cell and germ-cell, or rather of their nuclei, naturally suggest the conception of some quite special and peculiar properties possessed by these cells. It seems obvious that this mysterious power which they display of originating a new and complex organism, distinguishes them in the broadest way from portions of organic substance in general. Nevertheless, the more we study the evidence the more are we led towards the conclusion that these cells are not fundamentally different from other cells." The evidence he gives is: (l) that small fragments of tissue in many plants and inferior animals may develop into entire organisms; (2) that the reproductive organs producing eggs and sperms are organs of low organisation, with no specialities of structure " which might be looked for, did sperm-cells and germ-cells