WHAT IS PHYSICAL LIFE 



Foraminifera therefore are virtually uni- 

 cellular, though with the important differ- 

 ence that they have no cell wall. Instead 

 their protruded threads of protoplasm 

 wherever they meet start a new organism 

 of their kind and thus may make a collec- 

 tion of relatively great size. 



We reproduce a plate here from Dr. 

 W. B. Carpenter's article in the Encyclo- 

 pcedia Britannica on the Foraminifera, of 

 the forms produced by them as they are 

 found in limestones, which shows at a 

 glance that they can no more be accident- 

 ally thrown together thus than a piece of 

 printed newspaper can spontaneously 

 come into existence anywhere. The bit of 

 newspaper may tell something about the 

 earthquake of Messina, but the limestone 

 inscription by the foramimfera may as 

 plainly tell a story of the doings of life 

 and of nothing but life, some forty million 

 years ago. 



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