1888.] MICEOSCOPICAL JOUENAL. 167 



of animals without chlorophyl or like that of plants supplied with it? An 

 eminent English scientist has suggested the possibility, at least, that animals 

 preceded plants. The following is a statement of his views : — ' A conceiv- 

 able state of things is that a vast amount of albuminoids and other such com- 

 pounds had been brought into existence by those processes w^hich culminated 

 in the development of the first protoplasm, and it seems likely enough that 

 this first protoplasm fed upon these antecedent steps in its own evolution just 

 as animals feed on organic compounds at the present day. 



'At subsequent stages in the history of this archaic living matter, chloroph3'll 

 was evolved and tlie power of taking carbon from carbonic acid. The green 

 plants were rendered possible by the evolution of chlorophyll, but, through 

 what ancestral forms they took origin or whether more than once, /. e., by 

 more than one branch, it is difficult even to guess. The green Flagellate 

 Protozoa (Volvocinece) certainly furnish a connecting point by which it is 

 possible to link on the pedigree of the green plants to the primitive proto- 

 plasm. Thus we are led to entertain the paradox that, though the animal is 

 dependent on the plant for its food, yet the animal preceded the plant in evo- 

 lution, and we look among the lower Protozoa and not among the Protophyta 

 for the nearest representatives of that first protoplasm which was the result 

 of a long and gradual evolution of chemical structure and the starting-point 

 of the development of organic forms.' 



To those who profess to believe in the production by chemical evolution 

 of protoplasm as a specific being reproducing itself, this ingenious ' paradox ' 

 is well nigh unavoidable. Chlorophyl is a product of protoplasm and could 

 not well precede in evolution its cause. But this, plausible as it is, depends 

 on too many pure assumptions. It is broached only because it seems to be a 

 logical sequence of a theory which cannot be proved, and of which manv 

 dispute even the probability. It must be assumed, first, that there was, in 

 the remote time of primordial life, produced, by chemical reactions alone, a 

 mass of albuminoids from which protoplasm could and did spring, and on 

 which it could subsist until an oncoming sense of hunger, as the supply of 

 organic food produced without antecedent life disappeared, suggested or 

 caused or resulted in the production of chlorophyl, by which means the 

 supply was replenished. Second, the nature and relations of the animate 

 kingdoms, as they now exist, were once different or reversed. Neither of 

 these propositions is sustained by a particle of chemical, biological, or paleon- 

 tological evidence. The past must be judged by the present. To preserve 

 respect for the scientific method and the conclusions derived therefrom un- 

 necessary speculation should be avoided. For one, I prefer to hold, for the 

 present at least, the belief that in the beginning living organisms were created 

 'n their simplest forms ; from these succeeding floras and faunas have been 

 •^^•olved. 



'Ve do not begin to know the nature of force, of matter, or the origin of 

 "^ . on, yet we study and investigate their laws and natural relations, and are 

 satisr-g^^ We rest our inquiries as to whence and what, and partly admit 

 that ti.ggg g^j-g questions past finding out by our philosophy. So, too, we 

 may |o[rically examine the phenomena of life, past and present, without be- 

 mg alye Qj. ;issuming to explain on scientific grounds its essence or origin. I 

 am willing ^^ admit the creation of protoplasm, and chlorophyl too, if neces- 

 ^''^^'•iw'^ power that is beyond nature as we understand the term. 



otill l ividt-fiit that the question of Archebiosis is not necessarily and for- 

 evei settled . j^. ,-t^rjy ygt \^q attacked and proved experimentally by some one 

 enaowecl b), ^ peculiar genius for experimentation, one who shall be able 

 Dotn to see ai.^j j.^ artificially reproduce those conditions and combinations of 

 mattei and to ^.^gg^ chemical and physical, which existed during the ages jDre- 

 ceclmg the lon^^^j^j-^ ^^ j.j^g oldest fossil-bearing rocks. 



