28

THE FORMLESS SLIMY ATOM.

describes as a formless, structureless, slimy atom, (Schleimklümpchen) composed of an albuminoid carbonaceous matter, as homogeneous as an inorganic crystal. Although when in a state of repose; it only consists of a little ball of slime or mucus, either invisible to the naked eye, or if visible, only of the size of a pin's head, still it is endowed with the two fundamental organic functions of nutrition and reproduction.

"These first ancestors of man," says Haeckel, 66 were as simple as possible. They were organisms without organs, like our present monera, consisting merely of little shapeless lumps of a slimy albuminous material (protoplasm). These organisms never attained to the form of a cell, but were always mere 'cytodes,' being devoid of any nucleus. The first of these monera sprang by spontaneous generation,

MAN'S FIRST ANCESTORS, THE MONERA. 29

(Urzeugung) at the commencement of the Laurentian period, from inorganic compounds-simple combinations of Carbon, Carbonic Acid, Hydrogen, and Nitrogen."*

The Monera are further described as being neither plants nor animals, but belonging to a third primary division of the living world, to which Haeckel has given the name of Protista.

As the history of the Protistic kingdom may be a novelty to many of my readers, I shall not deem it irrelevant to my subject to enter into some details in reference to it. The Protista form an organic group which cannot naturally be classed either in the animal or vegetable kingdom; there being in their exterior form, in their intimate structure, and in their vital phenomena, such a singular mixture of

Natürliche Schöpfungsgeschichte, P. 578.

30

THE REGNUM PROTISTICUM, OR

animal and vegetable properties, that they have been respectively claimed both by the botanist and by the zoologist.

The Primordial organisms which constitute the Protistic kingdom are divided into the following eight groups :

1°, The Monera. 2°, The Amoeboida or Protoplasta. 3°, The Flagellata. 4°, The Catallacta. 5°, The Labyrinthulæ. The Diatomaceæ. 7°, The Myxomycetes or mucus-fungi. 8°, The Rhizopoda.

6°

The accompanying illustration (Fig. IV) represents the most interesting member of this Protistic kingdom, The Moner, "the first ancestor of Man," and also shows the mode of reproduction observable in these elementary organisms, which is by segmentation; that is, when one of these little corpuscles has acquired a certain size by the absorption of albuminoid matter, it

KINGDOM OF PRIMITIVE FORMS.

31

begins to show a tendency to divide into two parts; a central constriction occurs, resulting eventually in a separation into two halves, each half becoming henceforth a distinct individual, possessed of all the properties of the parent Moner.

A. Is the entire Moner. B. The same corpuscle divided into two halves by a median furrow. Ca. Cb. The two halves have become separated from each other, and now constitute distinct and independent individuals, manifesting the same

32

THE REGNUM PROTISTICUM, OR

vital phenomena of nutrition and reproduction as the organism of which they originally formed a part.

"In certain instances," says Haeckel, "the Monera sub-divide into more than two parts, and in some species they separate into a great number of mucous globules, which by simple growth acquire the volume of their parents." He then goes on to say that "this most simple mode of reproduction, by scissiparity or self-division, is the same by which cells are re-produced-those rudimentary organic units, by the agglomeration of which almost all organisms are constituted, not excepting even the human body. Each organic individual is always composed of a great number of cells, and each cell is, to a certain extent, an individual organism -a being of primal order."