The Evolution of Man Volume I Part 5

The same must be said of all the remarkable phenomena which we perceive in the economy of the living organism. The many and various relations of plants and animals to each other and to their environment, which are treated in bionomy (from nomos, law or norm, and bios, life), the interesting facts of parasitism, domesticity, care of the young, social habits, etc., can only be explained by the action of heredity and adaptation. Formerly people saw only the guidance of a beneficent Providence in these phenomena; to-day we discover in them admirable proofs of the theory of evolution. It is impossible to understand them except in the light of this theory and the struggle for life.

Finally, we must, in my opinion, count among the chief inductive bases of the theory of evolution the foetal development of the individual organism, the whole science of embryology or ontogeny. But as the later chapters will deal with this in detail, I need say nothing further here. I shall endeavour in the following pages to show, step by step, how the whole of the embryonic phenomena form a ma.s.sive chain of proof for the theory of evolution; for they can be explained in no other way. In thus appealing to the close causal connection between ontogenesis and phylogenesis, and taking our stand throughout on the biogenetic law, we shall be able to prove, stage by stage, from the facts of embryology, the evolution of man from the lower animals.

The general adoption of the theory of evolution has definitely closed the controversy as to the nature or definition of the species. The word has no ABSOLUTE meaning whatever, but is only a group-name, or category of cla.s.sification, with a purely relative value. In 1857, it is true, a famous and gifted, but inaccurate and dogmatic, scientist, Louis Aga.s.siz, attempted to give an absolute value to these "categories of cla.s.sification." He did this in his Essay on Cla.s.sification, in which he turns upside down the phenomena of organic nature, and, instead of tracing them to their natural causes, examines them through a theological prism. The true species (bona species) was, he said, an "incarnate idea of the Creator." Unfortunately, this pretty phrase has no more scientific value than all the other attempts to save the absolute or intrinsic value of the species.

The dogma of the fixity and creation of species lost its last great champion when Aga.s.siz died in 1873. The opposite theory, that all the different species descend from common stem-forms, encounters no serious difficulty to-day. All the endless research into the nature of the species, and the possibility of several species descending from a common ancestor, has been closed to-day by the removal of the sharp limits that had been set up between species and varieties on the one hand, and species and genera on the other. I gave an a.n.a.lytic proof of this in my monograph on the sponges (1872), having made a very close study of variability in this small but highly instructive group, and shown the impossibility of making any dogmatic distinction of species.

According as the cla.s.sifier takes his ideas of genus, species, and variety in a broader or in a narrower sense, he will find in the small group of the sponges either one genus with three species, or three genera with 238 species, or 113 genera with 591 species. Moreover, all these forms are so connected by intermediate forms that we can convincingly prove the descent of all the sponges from a common stem-form, the olynthus.

Here, I think, I have given an a.n.a.lytic solution of the problem of the origin of species, and so met the demand of certain opponents of evolution for an actual instance of descent from a stem-form. Those who are not satisfied with the synthetic proofs of the theory of evolution which are provided by comparative anatomy, embryology, paleontology, dysteleology, chorology, and cla.s.sification, may try to refute the a.n.a.lytic proof given in my treatise on the sponge, the outcome of five years of a.s.siduous study. I repeat: It is now impossible to oppose evolution on the ground that we have no convincing example of the descent of all the species of a group from a common ancestor. The monograph on the sponges furnishes such a proof, and, in my opinion, an indisputable proof. Any man of science who will follow the protracted steps of my inquiry and test my a.s.sertions will find that in the case of the sponges we can follow the actual evolution of species in a concrete case. And if this is so, if we can show the origin of all the species from a common form in one single cla.s.s, we have the solution of the problem of man's origin, because we are in a position to prove clearly his descent from the lower animals.

At the same time, we can now reply to the often-repeated a.s.sertion, even heard from scientists of our own day, that the descent of man from the lower animals, and proximately from the apes, still needs to be "proved with certainty." These "certain proofs" have been available for a long time; one has only to open one's eyes to see them. It is a mistake to seek them in the discovery of intermediate forms between man and the ape, or the conversion of an ape into a human being by skilful education. The proofs lie in the great ma.s.s of empirical material we have already collected. They are furnished in the strongest form by the data of comparative anatomy and embryology, completed by paleontology. It is not a question now of detecting new proofs of the evolution of man, but of examining and understanding the proofs we already have.

I was almost alone thirty-six years ago when I made the first attempt, in my General Morphology, to put organic science on a mechanical foundation through Darwin's theory of descent. The a.s.sociation of ontogeny and phylogeny and the proof of the intimate causal connection between these two sections of the science of evolution, which I expounded in my work, met with the most spirited opposition on nearly all sides. The next ten years were a terrible "struggle for life" for the new theory. But for the last twenty-five years the tables have been turned. The phylogenetic method has met with so general a reception, and found so prolific a use in every branch of biology, that it seems superfluous to treat any further here of its validity and results. The proof of it lies in the whole morphological literature of the last three decades. But no other science has been so profoundly modified in its leading thoughts by this adoption, and been forced to yield such far-reaching consequences, as that science which I am now seeking to establish--monistic anthropogeny.

This statement may seem to be rather audacious, since the very next branch of biology, anthropology in the stricter sense, makes very little use of these results of anthropogeny, and sometimes expressly opposes them.* (*This does not apply to English anthropologists, who are almost all evolutionists.) This applies especially to the att.i.tude which has characterised the German Anthropological Society (the Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Anthropologie) for some thirty years. Its powerful president, the famous pathologist, Rudolph Virchow, is chiefly responsible for this. Until his death (September 5th, 1902) he never ceased to reject the theory of descent as unproven, and to ridicule its chief consequence--the descent of man from a series of mammal ancestors--as a fantastic dream. I need only recall his well-known expression at the Anthropological Congress at Vienna in 1894, that "it would be just as well to say man came from the sheep or the elephant as from the ape."

Virchow's a.s.sistant, the secretary of the German Anthropological Society, Professor Johannes Ranke of Munich, has also indefatigably opposed transformism: he has succeeded in writing a work in two volumes (Der Mensch), in which all the facts relating to his organisation are explained in a sense hostile to evolution. This work has had a wide circulation, owing to its admirable ill.u.s.trations and its able treatment of the most interesting facts of anatomy and physiology--exclusive of the s.e.xual organs! But, as it has done a great deal to spread erroneous views among the general public, I have included a criticism of it in my History of Creation, as well as met Virchow's attacks on anthropogeny.

Neither Virchow, nor Ranke, nor any other "exact" anthropologist, has attempted to give any other natural explanation of the origin of man.

They have either set completely aside this "question of questions" as a transcendental problem, or they have appealed to religion for its solution. We have to show that this rejection of the rational explanation is totally without justification. The fund of knowledge which has acc.u.mulated in the progress of biology in the nineteenth century is quite adequate to furnish a rational explanation, and to establish the theory of the evolution of man on the solid facts of his embryology.

CHAPTER 1.6. THE OVUM AND THE AMOEBA.

In order to understand clearly the course of human embryology, we must select the more important of its wonderful and manifold processes for fuller explanation, and then proceed from these to the innumerable features of less importance. The most important feature in this sense, and the best starting-point for ontogenetic study, is the fact that man is developed from an ovum, and that this ovum is a simple cell.

The human ovum does not materially differ in form and composition from that of the other mammals, whereas there is a distinct difference between the fertilised ovum of the mammal and that of any other animal.

(FIGURE 1.1. The human ovum, magnified 100 times. The globular ma.s.s of yelk (b) is enclosed by a transparent membrane (the ovolemma or zona pellucida [a]), and contains a noncentral nucleus (the germinal vesicle, c). Cf. Figure 1.14.)

This fact is so important that few should be unaware of its extreme significance; yet it was quite unknown in the first quarter of the nineteenth century. As we have seen, the human and mammal ovum was not discovered until 1827, when Carl Ernst von Baer detected it. Up to that time the larger vesicles, in which the real and much smaller ovum is contained, had been wrongly regarded as ova. The important circ.u.mstance that this mammal ovum is a simple cell, like the ovum of other animals, could not, of course, be recognised until the cell theory was established. This was not done, by Schleiden for the plant and Schwann for the animal, until 1838. As we have seen, this cell theory is of the greatest service in explaining the human frame and its embryonic development. Hence we must say a few words about the actual condition of the theory and the significance of the views it has suggested.

In order properly to appreciate the cellular theory, the most important element in our science, it is necessary to understand in the first place that the cell is a UNIFIED ORGANISM, a self-contained living being. When we anatomically dissect the fully-formed animal or plant into its various organs, and then examine the finer structure of these organs with the microscope, we are surprised to find that all these different parts are ultimately made up of the same structural element or unit. This common unit of structure is the cell. It does not matter whether we thus dissect a leaf, flower, or fruit, or a bone, muscle, gland, or bit of skin, etc.; we find in every case the same ultimate const.i.tuent, which has been called the cell since Schleiden's discovery. There are many opinions as to its real nature, but the essential point in our view of the cell is to look upon it as a self-contained or independent living unit. It is, in the words of Brucke, "an elementary organism." We may define it most precisely as the ultimate organic unit, and, as the cells are the sole active principles in every vital function, we may call them the "plastids,"

or "formative elements." This unity is found in both the anatomic structure and the physiological function. In the case of the protists, the entire organism usually consists of a single independent cell throughout life. But in the tissue-forming animals and plants, which are the great majority, the organism begins its career as a simple cell, and then grows into a cell-community, or, more correctly, an organised cell-state. Our own body is not really the simple unity that it is generally supposed to be. On the contrary, it is a very elaborate social system of countless microscopic organisms, a colony or commonwealth, made up of innumerable independent units, or very different tissue-cells.

In reality, the term "cell," which existed long before the cell theory was formulated, is not happily chosen. Schleiden, who first brought it into scientific use in the sense of the cell theory, gave this name to the elementary organisms because, when you find them in the dissected plant, they generally have the appearance of chambers, like the cells in a bee-hive, with firm walls and a fluid or pulpy content. But some cells, especially young ones, are entirely without the enveloping membrane, or stiff wall. Hence we now generally describe the cell as a living, viscous particle of protoplasm, enclosing a firmer nucleus in its alb.u.minoid body. There may be an enclosing membrane, as there actually is in the case of most of the plants; but it may be wholly lacking, as is the case with most of the animals. There is no membrane at all in the first stage. The young cells are usually round, but they vary much in shape later on. Ill.u.s.trations of this will be found in the cells of the various parts of the body shown in Figures 1.3 to 1.7.

Hence the essential point in the modern idea of the cell is that it is made up of two different active const.i.tuents--an inner and an outer part. The smaller and inner part is the nucleus (or caryon or cytoblastus, Figure 1.1 c and Figure 1.2 k). The outer and larger part, which encloses the other, is the body of the cell (celleus, cytos, or cytosoma). The soft living substance of which the two are composed has a peculiar chemical composition, and belongs to the group of the alb.u.minoid plasma-substances ("formative matter"), or protoplasm. The essential and indispensable element of the nucleus is called nuclein (or caryoplasm); that of the cell body is called plastin (or cytoplasm). In the most rudimentary cases both substances seem to be quite simple and h.o.m.ogeneous, without any visible structure. But, as a rule, when we examine them under a high power of the microscope, we find a certain structure in the protoplasm. The chief and most common form of this is the fibrous or net-like "thready structure" (Frommann) and the frothy "honeycomb structure" (Butschli).

(FIGURE 1.2. Stem-cell of one of the echinoderms (cytula, or "first segmentation-cell" = fertilised ovum), after Hertwig. k is the nucleus or caryon.)

The shape or outer form of the cell is infinitely varied, in accordance with its endless power of adapting itself to the most diverse activities or environments. In its simplest form the cell is globular (Figure 1.2). This normal round form is especially found in cells of the simplest construction, and those that are developed in a free fluid without any external pressure. In such cases the nucleus also is not infrequently round, and located in the centre of the cell-body (Figure 1.2 k). In other cases, the cells have no definite shape; they are constantly changing their form owing to their automatic movements. This is the case with the amoebae (Figures 1.15 and 1.16) and the amoeboid travelling cells (Figure 1.11), and also with very young ova (Figure 1.13). However, as a rule, the cell a.s.sumes a definite form in the course of its career. In the tissues of the multicellular organism, in which a number of similar cells are bound together in virtue of certain laws of heredity, the shape is determined partly by the form of their connection and partly by their special functions. Thus, for instance, we find in the mucous lining of our tongue very thin and delicate flat cells of roundish shape (Figure 1.3). In the outer skin we find similar, but harder, covering cells, joined together by saw-like edges (Figure 1.4). In the liver and other glands there are thicker and softer cells, linked together in rows (Figure 1.5).

The last-named tissues (Figures 1.3 to 1.5) belong to the simplest and most primitive type, the group of the "covering-tissues," or epithelia. In these "primary tissues" (to which the germinal layers belong) simple cells of the same kind are arranged in layers. The arrangement and shape are more complicated in the "secondary tissues,"

which are gradually developed out of the primary, as in the tissues of the muscles, nerves, bones, etc. In the bones, for instance, which belong to the group of supporting or connecting organs, the cells (Figure 1.6) are star-shaped, and are joined together by numbers of net-like interlacing processes; so, also, in the tissues of the teeth (Figure 1.7), and in other forms of supporting-tissue, in which a soft or hard substance (intercellular matter, or base) is inserted between the cells.

(FIGURE 1.3. Three epithelial cells from the mucous lining of the tongue.

FIGURE 1.4. Five spiny or grooved cells, with edges joined, from the outer skin (epidermis): one of them (b) is isolated.

FIGURE 1.5. Ten liver-cells: one of them (b) has two nuclei.)

The cells also differ very much in size. The great majority of them are invisible to the naked eye, and can be seen only through the microscope (being as a rule between 1/2500 and 1/250 inch in diameter). There are many of the smaller plastids--such as the famous bacteria--which only come into view with a very high magnifying power.

On the other hand, many cells attain a considerable size, and run occasionally to several inches in diameter, as do certain kinds of rhizopods among the unicellular protists (such as the radiolaria and thalamophora). Among the tissue-cells of the animal body many of the muscular fibres and nerve fibres are more than four inches, and sometimes more than a yard, in length. Among the largest cells are the yelk-filled ova; as, for instance, the yellow "yolk" in the hen's egg, which we shall describe later (Figure 1.15).

Cells also vary considerably in structure. In this connection we must first distinguish between the active and pa.s.sive components of the cell. It is only the former, or active parts of the cell, that really live, and effect that marvellous world of phenomena to which we give the name of "organic life." The first of these is the inner nucleus (caryoplasm), and the second the body of the cell (cytoplasm). The pa.s.sive portions come third; these are subsequently formed from the others, and I have given them the name of "plasma-products." They are partly external (cell-membranes and intercellular matter) and partly internal (cell-sap and cell-contents).

The nucleus (or caryon), which is usually of a simple roundish form, is quite structureless at first (especially in very young cells), and composed of h.o.m.ogeneous nuclear matter or caryoplasm (Figure 1.2 k).

But, as a rule, it forms a sort of vesicle later on, in which we can distinguish a more solid nuclear base (caryobasis) and a softer or fluid nuclear sap (caryolymph). In a mesh of the nuclear network (or it may be on the inner side of the nuclear envelope) there is, as a rule, a dark, very opaque, solid body, called the nucleolus. Many of the nuclei contain several of these nucleoli (as, for instance, the germinal vesicle of the ova of fishes and amphibia). Recently a very small, but particularly important, part of the nucleus has been distinguished as the central body (centrosoma)--a tiny particle that is originally found in the nucleus itself, but is usually outside it, in the cytoplasm; as a rule, fine threads stream out from it in the cytoplasm. From the position of the central body with regard to the other parts it seems probable that it has a high physiological importance as a centre of movement; but it is lacking in many cells.

The cell-body also consists originally, and in its simplest form, of a h.o.m.ogeneous viscid plasmic matter. But, as a rule, only the smaller part of it is formed of the living active cell-substance (protoplasm); the greater part consists of dead, pa.s.sive plasma-products (metaplasm). It is useful to distinguish between the inner and outer of these. External plasma-products (which are thrust out from the protoplasm as solid "structural matter") are the cell-membranes and the intercellular matter. The internal plasma-products are either the fluid cell-sap or hard structures. As a rule, in mature and differentiated cells these various parts are so arranged that the protoplasm (like the caryoplasm in the round nucleus) forms a sort of skeleton or framework. The s.p.a.ces of this network are filled partly with the fluid cell-sap and partly by hard structural products.

(FIGURE 1.6. Nine star-shaped bone-cells, with interlaced branches.

FIGURE 1.7. Eleven star-shaped cells from the enamel of a tooth, joined together by their branchlets.)

The simple round ovum, which we take as the starting-point of our study (Figures 1.1 and 1.2), has in many cases the vague, indifferent features of the typical primitive cell. As a contrast to it, and as an instance of a very highly differentiated plastid, we may consider for a moment a large nerve-cell, or ganglionic cell, from the brain. The ovum stands potentially for the entire organism--in other words, it has the faculty of building up out of itself the whole multicellular body. It is the common parent of all the countless generations of cells which form the different tissues of the body; it unites all their powers in itself, though only potentially or in germ. In complete contrast to this, the neural cell in the brain (Figure 1.9) develops along one rigid line. It cannot, like the ovum, beget endless generations of cells, of which some will become skin-cells, others muscle-cells, and others again bone-cells. But, on the other hand, the nerve-cell has become fitted to discharge the highest functions of life; it has the powers of sensation, will, and thought. It is a real soul-cell, or an elementary organ of the psychic activity. It has, therefore, a most elaborate and delicate structure. Numbers of extremely fine threads, like the electric wires at a large telegraphic centre, cross and recross in the delicate protoplasm of the nerve cell, and pa.s.s out in the branching processes which proceed from it and put it in communication with other nerve-cells or nerve-fibres (a, b). We can only partly follow their intricate paths in the fine matter of the body of the cell.

Here we have a most elaborate apparatus, the delicate structure of which we are just beginning to appreciate through our most powerful microscopes, but whose significance is rather a matter of conjecture than knowledge. Its intricate structure corresponds to the very complicated functions of the mind. Nevertheless, this elementary organ of psychic activity--of which there are thousands in our brain--is nothing but a single cell. Our whole mental life is only the joint result of the combined activity of all these nerve-cells, or soul-cells. In the centre of each cell there is a large transparent nucleus, containing a small and dark nuclear body. Here, as elsewhere, it is the nucleus that determines the individuality of the cell; it proves that the whole structure, in spite of its intricate composition, amounts to only a single cell.

(FIGURE 1.8. Unfertilised ovum of an echinoderm (from Hertwig). The vesicular nucleus (or "germinal vesicle") is globular, half the size of the round ovum, and encloses a nuclear framework, in the central knot of which there is a dark nucleolus (the "germinal spot").

FIGURE 1.9. A large branching nerve-cell, or "soul-cell," from the brain of an electric fish (Torpedo), magnified 600 times. In the middle of the cell is the large transparent round nucleus, one nucleolus, and, within the latter again, a nucleolinus. The protoplasm of the cell is split into innumerable fine threads (or fibrils), which are embedded in intercellular matter, and are prolonged into the branching processes of the cell (b). One branch (a) pa.s.ses into a nerve-fibre. (From Max Schultze.))

In contrast with this very elaborate and very strictly differentiated psychic cell (Figure 1.9), we have our ovum (Figures 1.1 and 1.2), which has hardly any structure at all. But even in the case of the ovum we must infer from its properties that its protoplasmic body has a very complicated chemical composition and a fine molecular structure which escapes our observation. This presumed molecular structure of the plasm is now generally admitted; but it has never been seen, and, indeed, lies far beyond the range of microscopic vision. It must not be confused--as is often done--with the structure of the plasm (the fibrous network, groups of granules, honey-comb, etc.) which does come within the range of the microscope.

But when we speak of the cells as the elementary organisms, or structural units, or "ultimate individualities," we must bear in mind a certain restriction of the phrases. I mean, that the cells are not, as is often supposed, the very lowest stage of organic individuality.

There are yet more elementary organisms to which I must refer occasionally. These are what we call the "cytodes" (cytos = cell), certain living, independent beings, consisting only of a particle of pla.s.son--an alb.u.minoid substance, which is not yet differentiated into caryoplasm and cytoplasm, but combines the properties of both. Those remarkable beings called the monera--especially the chromacea and bacteria--are specimens of these simple cytodes. (Compare Chapter 2.19.) To be quite accurate, then, we must say: the elementary organism, or the ultimate individual, is found in two different stages. The first and lower stage is the cytode, which consists merely of a particle of pla.s.son, or quite simple plasm. The second and higher stage is the cell, which is already divided or differentiated into nuclear matter and cellular matter. We comprise both kinds--the cytodes and the cells--under the name of plastids ("formative particles"), because they are the real builders of the organism.

However, these cytodes are not found, as a rule, in the higher animals and plants; here we have only real cells with a nucleus. Hence, in these tissue-forming organisms (both plant and animal) the organic unit always consists of two chemically and anatomically different parts--the outer cell-body and the inner nucleus.

In order to convince oneself that this cell is really an independent organism, we have only to observe the development and vital phenomena of one of them. We see then that it performs all the essential functions of life--both vegetal and animal--which we find in the entire organism. Each of these tiny beings grows and nourishes itself independently. It takes its food from the surrounding fluid; sometimes, even, the naked cells take in solid particles at certain points of their surface--in other words, "eat" them--without needing any special mouth and stomach for the purpose (cf. Figure 1.19).

Further, each cell is able to reproduce itself. This multiplication, in most cases, takes the form of a simple cleavage, sometimes direct, sometimes indirect; the simple direct (or "amitotic") division is less common, and is found, for instance, in the blood cells (Figure 1.10).

In these the nucleus first divides into two equal parts by constriction. The indirect (or "mitotic") cleavage is much more frequent; in this the caryoplasm of the nucleus and the cytoplasm of the cell-body act upon each other in a peculiar way, with a partial dissolution (caryolysis), the formation of knots and loops (mitosis), and a movement of the halved plasma-particles towards two mutually repulsive poles of attraction (caryokinesis, Figure 1.11.)

(FIGURE 1.10. Blood-cells, multiplying by direct division, from the blood of the embryo of a stag. Originally, each blood-cell has a nucleus and is round (a). When it is going to multiply, the nucleus divides into two (b, c, d). Then the protoplasmic body is constricted between the two nuclei, and these move away from each other (e).

Finally, the constriction is complete, and the cell splits into two daughter-cells (f). (From Frey.))

FIGURE 1.11. Indirect or mitotic cell-division (with caryolysis and caryokinesis) from the skin of the larva of a salamander. (From Rabl.).

A. Mother-cell (Knot, spirema), with Nuclear threads (chromosomata) (coloured nuclear matter, chromatin), Cytosoma, Nuclear membrane, Protoplasm of the cell-body and Nuclear sap.

B. Mother-star, the loops beginning to split lengthways (nuclear membrane gone), with Star-like appearance in cytoplasm, Centrosoma (sphere of attraction), Nuclear spindle (achromin, colourless matter) and Nuclear loops (chromatin, coloured matter).

C. The two daughter-stars, produced by the breaking of the loops of the mother-star (moving away), with Upper daughter-crown, Connecting threads of the two crowns (achromin), Lower daughter-crown and Double-star (amphiaster).

D. The two daughter-cells, produced by the complete division of the two nuclear halves (cytosomata still connected at the equator) (Double-knot, Dispirema), with Upper daughter-nucleus, Equatorial constriction of the cell-body and Lower daughter-nucleus.)

The intricate physiological processes which accompany this "mitosis"

have been very closely studied of late years. The inquiry has led to the detection of certain laws of evolution which are of extreme importance in connection with heredity. As a rule, two very different parts of the nucleus play an important part in these changes. They are: the chromatin, or coloured nuclear substance, which has a peculiar property of tingeing itself deeply with certain colouring matters (carmine, haematoxylin, etc.), and the achromin (or linin, or achromatin), a colourless nuclear substance that lacks this property.

The latter generally forms in the dividing cell a sort of spindle, at the poles of which there is a very small particle, also colourless, called the "central body" (centrosoma). This acts as the centre or focus in a "sphere of attraction" for the granules of protoplasm in the surrounding cell-body, and a.s.sumes a star-like appearance (the cell-star, or monaster). The two central bodies, standing opposed to each other at the poles of the nuclear spindle, form "the double-star"

(or amphiaster, Figure 1.11, BC). The chromatin often forms a long, irregularly-wound thread--"the coil" (spirema, Figure A). At the commencement of the cleavage it gathers at the equator of the cell, between the stellar poles, and forms a crown of U-shaped loops (generally four or eight, or some other definite number). The loops split lengthwise into two halves (B), and these back away from each other towards the poles of the spindle (C). Here each group forms a crown once more, and this, with the corresponding half of the divided spindle, forms a fresh nucleus (D). Then the protoplasm of the cell-body begins to contract in the middle, and gather about the new daughter-nuclei, and at last the two daughter-cells become independent beings.