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LEISURE-TIME STUDIES. 



results of its living, as the highest animal or plant. Whilst 

 it must not be forgotten that the bodies of all living beings, 

 without exception, originate from germs which consist of 

 this protoplasm. So that it may be said, without fear of 

 contradiction, that the bodies of man and of the monad, 

 of the highest plant and of the lowest plant, are essentially 

 alike in respect of the primitive matter of which each is 

 composed. Development and inherited powers simply shape 



FIG. 41. Amoebae, or "proteus animalcules :" a, Amoeba radiosa, showing the pro- 

 trusions of its body-substance; l>, Amoeba diffluens. The figures represent the 

 same animalcule in different stages of contraction. 



and fashion the primitive and uniform matter of the germ 

 into a higher or lower form of life ; but the end and result 

 of this development does not in the slightest degree in- 

 validate the assertion that in their earlier stages all organisms 

 are alike. Thus, neither chemical science nor the microscope 

 has as yet been able to show any difference between the 

 primitive protoplasm of the animal, and that of the plant. 

 The further back the history of the animal or plant is traced 

 by the keen gaze of the microscopist or by the subtle art of 

 the chemist, the more realistic does the identity and similarity 

 of the two natures become. Whilst not the least remarkable 

 thought engendered by the failure of the microscope and of 

 chemistry in this respect, is that which suggests and owns that 

 the furthest research is incompetent to distinguish between 

 the germ which in the one case may ultimately advance in 

 little or in nothing beyond its primitive state, and that which, 



