The fourth step is the production of daughter-cells. The germ-cell
(fertilized ovum) is the primordial cell, from which every other cell
in the human body is directly or indirectly, produced by fission or
self-division. As already stated, the germ-cell divides into two
daughter-cells, these into four, these into eight, sixteen, and so
on to infinity. Every cell is composed of a vast number of atoms. A
portion of these atoms is differentiated into “the inner nucleus
(caryoplasm)” and “the body of the cell (cytoplasm).” (Haeckel, Ev.
Man, p. 38.) Again he says: “In a mesh of the nuclear net-work … there
is, as a rule, a dark, very opaque, solid body, called the nucleolus.”
(Ev. Man, p. 38.) On another page, he says: “Some cells have a
‘nucleolinus’ in the center of the nucleolus.” (Ev. Man, p. 40, fig. 9.)
We cannot believe that any microscopic cell in the human body has
intellect, memory, will-power nor creative force. For a stronger
reason, we cannot imagine that any of the atoms of which any cell is
composed, has these faculties. Nor can we conceive that a portion of
these atoms, automatically, metamorphose themselves into a nucleolus,
others into a nucleolinus, while the remainder continue to be a simple
cell-body.
How do the cells know when the time has come to divide into two
daughter-cells; where the dividing line should run in order to divide
the cell-body, nucleus and nucleolus into two equal parts? For further
discussion of cells see Index, infra, “cell.”
Sec. 24. Animals, Their Sizes are Determined, How?
Why does the elephant grow larger than the mouse. Both are mammals and
are built of cells. The mouse has identically the same organs and parts
that the elephant has. The mode of reproducing each is the same as that
of the other. The spermatozoön, ovum and germ-cell are common to both.
How does it happen that all normal adult individuals of each species of
animal in a given region and of each sex, have substantially the same
form and size, called: “the mode?”
The reader may reply that nature fixes the size and form of every
individual of each species. The evolutionist will say that the law of
heredity and environment determine the sizes and forms of animals and
plants; that the mouse is small because his ancestors were small; that
the elephant is large because his were large.
But these replies do not explain the phenomena. Each animal grows
anew, for itself. His body is a new combination of the atoms and
cells of which it is composed. The forces and motions employed in its
construction are new and peculiar to it. When the cells in an embryo
body begin to grow there is no apparent reason why they should not
continue to grow and multiply, forever. Now, what psychic force or
agency ascertains and determines when the work of building up the
animal body has been completed? What force or agency equalizes the
growth and waste of cells in a mature animal body and keeps it of the
same form, size, and weight until the decay of old age comes on?
The size of every animal depends upon the size and number of cells in
his body; and its form is determined by the manner in which these cells
are grouped together. For example there are more cells in the nose
(trunk) and teeth (tusks) of the elephant, in proportion to the size of
his body, than there are in those of the mouse in proportion to his.
It is clear that a mouse would grow to be as large as an elephant if
the cells in his body continued to grow and multiply for a sufficient
period of time. Why do the cells cease to multiply when the mouse has
attained a certain size? Why do they stop work in the elephant’s body
when he gets his normal growth? Do the cells in the mouse and those in
the elephant know when their work is done? How do they know it?
The materialist denies the existence of a First Cause and maintains
that every animal and plant is the result of “a natural continuous and
necessary evolution.” (Haeckel, Evolution of Man, p. 26.) Huxley says,
in effect, that “secondary causes” produce all the phenomena of the
physical universe; and that man and the rest of the living world “are
all co-ordinated terms in nature’s great progression.” (Man’s Place in
Nature, pp. 150-151.)
But it appears that the materialist maintains that the law of heredity
is fixed and unchangeable, at all events it is proof against secondary
causes. For example, no sort of treatment, nor any kind nor quantity of
food will make a mouse grow to the size of an elephant nor any larger
than his ancestors were. Food and environment are “secondary causes;”
but they have no power to change the form nor the size of the animal
body.
Since all normal adult individuals of each species of animals, all over
the earth, and in every age, have substantially the same form and size;
and since each individual is built up, anew, of new cells (or atoms)
by new forces and motions, we are compelled to assume that the same
psychic force or agency determines the number of cells which shall go
into each normal body, and the manner in which these cells shall be
grouped together. In brief, the same supernatural psychic and creative
force, always, determines the form and size of each animal, all over
the earth.