[163] Cf. Introd. à l’étude de la médecine expérimentale, 1885, p. 110.

[164] Cf. Abonyi, Z. f. w. Z. CXIV, p. 134, 1915. But Frédéricq has shewn that the amount of NaCl in the blood of Crustacea (Carcinus moenas) varies, and all but corresponds, with the density of the water in which the creature has been kept (Arch. de Zool. Exp. et Gén. (2), III, p. xxxv, 1885); and other results of Frédéricq’s, and various data given or quoted by Bottazzi (Osmotischer Druck und elektrische Leitungsfähigkeit der Flüssigkeiten der Organismen, in Asher-Spiro’s Ergebn. d. Physiologie, VII, pp. 160–402, 1908) suggest that the case of the brine-shrimps must be looked upon as an extreme or exceptional one.

[165] Cf. Schmankewitsch, Z. f. w. Zool. XXV, 1875, XXIX, 1877, etc.; transl. in appendix to Packard’s Monogr. of N. American Phyllopoda, 1883, pp. 466–514; Daday de Deés, Ann. Sci. Nat. (Zool.), (9), XI, 1910; Samter und Heymons, Abh. d. K. pr. Akad. Wiss. 1902; Bateson, Mat. for the Study of Variation, 1894, pp. 96–101; Anikin, Mitth. Kais. Univ. Tomsk, XIV: Zool. Centralbl. VI, pp. 756–760, 1908; Abonyi, Z. f. w. Z. CXIV, pp. 96–168, 1915 (with copious bibliography), etc.

[166] According to the empirical canon of physiology, that (as Frédéricq expresses it) “L’être vivant est agencé de telle manière que chaque influence perturbatrice provoque d’elle-même la mise en activité de l’appareil compensateur qui doit neutraliser et réparer le dommage.”

[167] Such phenomena come precisely under the head of what Bacon called Instances of Magic: “By which I mean those wherein the material or efficient cause is scanty and small as compared with the work or effect produced; so that even when they are common, they seem like miracles, some at first sight, others even after attentive consideration. These magical effects are brought about in three ways ... [of which one is] by excitation or invitation in another body, as in the magnet which excites numberless needles without losing any of its virtue, or in yeast and such-like.” Nov. Org., cap. li.

[168] Monnier, A., Les matières minérales, et la loi d’accroissement des Végétaux, Publ. de l’Inst. de Bot. de l’Univ. de Genève (7), III, 1905. Cf. Robertson, On the Normal Rate of Growth of an Individual, and its Biochemical Significance, Arch. f. Entw. Mech. XXV, pp. 581–614, XXVI, pp. 108–118, 1908; Wolfgang Ostwald, Die zeitlichen Eigenschaften der Ent­wicke­lungs­vor­gänge, 1908; Hatai, S., Interpretation of Growth-curves from a Dynamical Standpoint, Anat. Record, V, p. 373, 1911.

[169] Biochem. Zeitschr. II, 1906, p. 34.

[170] Even a crystal may be said, in a sense, to display “autocatalysis”: for the bigger its surface becomes, the more rapidly does the mass go on increasing.

[171] Cf. Loeb, The Stimulation of Growth, Science, May 14, 1915.

[172] B. coli-communis, according to Buchner, tends to double in 22 minutes; in 24 hours, therefore, a single individual would be multiplied by something like 1028 ; Sitzungsber. München. Ges. Morphol. u. Physiol. III, pp. 65–71, 1888. Cf. Marshall Ward, Biology of Bacillus ramosus, etc. Pr. R. S. LVIII, 265–468, 1895. The comparatively large infusorian Stylonichia, according to Maupas, would multiply in a month by 1043 .