THE SIMPLEST FORMS OF LIFE 39 



reproduction, movement, and sensation. Are we to sup- 

 pose that inorganic forces could effect the life of the 

 chroococcus or the bacillus, but not that of the amoeba ? 

 Even if we had no intermediate species, it would be 

 a very large demand. We have scores of intermediate 

 beings. 



As far as nutrition is concerned, there can be no difficulty. 

 It is a physical and chemical process from first to last. 

 From Sir Oliver Lodge's excellent paragraphs on the 

 chemical nature of plasm (in his last chapter) the difference 

 in growth between the crystalloid and the colloid (jelly-like) 

 substance is intelligible. As for the nucleus of the amoeba, 

 we can hardly be asked to see a supernatural action in the 

 concentration of the chromatin or hereditary matter (which 

 has nothing to do with the external world) in the centre of 

 the body, thus leaving the superficial matter to get and digest 

 food. Natural selection would obviously tend to effect this. 

 And though the question taxes the present resources of 

 the microscopist we seem to find many stages in the 

 formation of nuclei in organisms below the level of the 

 amoeba. In many cases, in fact, the presence of a nucleus 

 is warmly disputed. That is all the evolutionist needs. 

 The faculty of locomotion is equally within the range of 

 natural selection. The tense struggle for existence would 

 soon set in among the myriads of primitive microbes. 

 Study a drop of water or ink growing on a table. See 

 how at certain points it reaches out, as it were, towards 

 a larger grain of matter just beyond its rim. The 

 infinitely subtler composition of plasm would make this 



