246 RELICS OF PRIMEVAL LIFE 



as it were into sympathy with them, we can under- 

 stand something of their powers and feelings. In 

 the first place, it is plain that they can vigorously, 

 if roughly, exercise those mechanical, chemical, and 

 vegetative powers of life which are characteristic of 

 the animal. They can seize, swallow, digest, and 

 assimilate food ; and, employing its albuminous parts 

 in nourishing their tissues, can burn away the rest in 

 processes akin to our respiration, or reject it from 

 their system. Like us, they can subsist only on food 

 which the plant has previously produced ; for in this 

 world, from the beginning of time, the plant has been 

 the only organism which could use the solar light and 

 heat as forces to enable it to turn the dead elements 

 of matter into living, growing tissues, and into or- 

 ganic compounds capable of nourishing the animal. 

 Like us, the Protozoa expend the food which they 

 have assimilated in the production of animal force, 

 and in doing so cause it to be oxidized, or burnt 

 away, and resolved again into dead matter. It is 

 true that we have much more complicated apparatus 

 for performing these functions, but it does not follow 

 that this gives us much real superiority, except rela- 

 tively to the more difficult conditions of our existence. 

 The gourmand who enjoys his dinner may have no 



