THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 1 1 5 



place in either of these kingdoms, and they were con- 

 sequently placed in the one or in the other alternately 

 as the state of knowledge at the time varied, or almost 

 according to the whim of successive writers. But now, 

 at last, after this unseemly bandying to and fro, their 

 proper position is being generally recognized. The 

 merit of taking a definite step as regards the classifica- 

 tion of these animals rests with Professor Haeckel, who 

 says 1 : C I have made the attempt in my "General 

 Morphology " to throw some light upon this systematic 

 chaos, by placing, as a special division between true 

 animals and true plants, all those doubtful organisms 

 of the lowest rank which display no decided affinities 

 nearer to one side than to the other, or which possess 

 animal and vegetable characters united and mixed in 

 such a manner that, since their discovery, an in- 

 terminable controversy about their position in the 

 animal or in the vegetable kingdom has continued. 

 Manifestly this controversy becomes reduced to the 

 smallest compass if the disputable and doubtful inter- 

 mediate forms are separated for the present (though 

 only provisionally) both from the true animals and 

 from the true plants, and united in a special organic 

 " kingdom." Thereby we obtain the advantage of 

 being able to distinguish both true animals and true 

 plants by a clear and sharp definition, and, on the 

 other hand, a special proportion of attention is attracted 



1 ' Monograph of Monera. 5 Translation in ' Quarterly Journal of 

 Microscopical Science,' July, 1869, p. 230. 



I 2 



