282 RELICS OF PRIMEVAL LIFE 



the chain of animal life with a Protozooan belong- 

 ing to one of the simpler or more generalized types 

 of that group, and entitled to the name, both be- 

 cause of its place in order of time and of rank in 

 the development of the animal kingdom. If we 

 deny the claims of Eozoon, then the base of our 

 animal system must for the present be found in the 

 Sponges, Worms, Foraminifera, and Radiolarians of 

 the Huronian, with the problematical laminated 

 forms allied to Cryptozoon which seem to occur 

 even in the Upper Laurentian. Thus in this case 

 the miracle of creation stands before us in a some- 

 what more complex form, though greatly less so 

 than if we had to accept the fauna of the Lower 

 Cambrian as the oldest known. 



Under any supposition we cannot hope to get 

 beyond a Protozoan or a few Protozoa, and we 

 must assume that these could perform perfectly in 

 their simple way those functions of assimilation, 

 organic growth, reproduction, sensation, and spon- 

 taneous motion, which are characteristic of these 

 lowest forms of life in the present world. 



It is plain, finally, that however simple we imagine 

 this first possessor of animal life to be, we can have 

 no scientific evidence of its oric^ination either as 



