CHAPTER XV. 



The Beginning of Life. 



T^IOLOGISTS believe that the first "Life Spark" came 

 into being more than a thousand million years ago In 

 the form of minute, protoplasmic bacteria resembling the 

 simplest form of life that is now known. It may have been 

 like the Algae, the simplest form of plant life. Since all 

 animal life is dependent on plant life, it is only reasonable to 

 suppose that it was more plant than animal but at the same 

 time, possessing the properties of both. It was a unicellular 

 bit of protoplasm possessing the power to divide itself into 

 new and complete cells. In whatever form It may have been 

 it was the forerunner of all plant and animal life. It was 

 made up of millions of electrons, atoms and molecules each 

 following their established laws yet possessing qualities and 

 power that no other group of electrons, atoms and molecules 

 had ever before possessed. It possessed the power of multi- 

 plying itself by division — the power of growth. This is the 

 greatest miracle of all time. It Is a thousand times more 

 miraculous than the traditional belief that man was created 

 of full stature, possessing a language, an understanding, and 

 all the attributes and qualities that a full grown man pos- 

 sesses, because the Evolution of this first cell up to man has 

 been traced with reasonable certainty and convincing clear- 

 ness. From this first cell through the life actions of sensa- 

 tion, digestion, locomotion, circulation, protection, adapta- 



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