88 CELL INTELLIGENCE THE CAUSE OF EVOLUTION 



the water, that I shall quote a description of them from 

 Ernest Haeckel. 



"The same may be said of the traveling spores of many 

 of the algae and of the most remarkable of all ciliated 

 cells, the spermia or spermatozoa of plants and animals. 

 As a rule they are cone shape, having an oval or pear 

 shape, (though often also rod shape) head, which tapers 

 into a long and thin thread. When their lively move- 

 ments were first noticed in the male seminal fluid (each 

 drop of which contained millions of them) two hundred 

 years ago, they were thought to be real independent ani- 

 malcules like the infusoria and so obtained their name of 

 seed animals (spermatozoa). It was a long time (60 

 years ago) before we learned that they are detached glan- 

 ular cells, which have the function of fertilizing the ovum. 

 It was discovered at the same time that similar vibratory 

 cells are found in many of the plants (algae mosses and 

 ferns). Many of the latter (for instance, the spermato- 

 zoids of the Cycadea) have instead of a few long whips, 

 a number of short lashes (cilia) and resemble the more 

 highly developed ciliated infusoria. 



"The ciliary movement of the infusoria is held to be 

 a more perfect form of vibratory movement, because the 

 many short lashes found on them are used for different 

 purposes and have accordingly assumed different forms 

 in the division of labor. Some of the cilia are used for 

 running or swimming, others for grasping or touching 

 and so on. In social combination we have the ciliated 

 cells of the ciliated epithelium of the higher animals for 

 instance, in the lungs, nostrils, and oviducts of verta- 

 brates." 



The reader will clearly see from this description by Mr. 

 Haeckel, that the male cell of man, animals and plants is 



