CHAPTER 4. 

 THE LIVING STRUCTURES. 



The crust of the earth discloses to us like the leaves in 

 a book an enormous number of animals and plants that 

 have lived in the past but are now extinct and no more. 

 Every layer and stratum is a page in the history of the 

 life that has existed on this planet in the past. Just what 

 was the cause of failure and its extermination in some 

 cases is not easy to tell. However in the evolution of 

 living structures, it is the same as in the evolution of other 

 structures and those produced by man, the best will be re- 

 tained and the inferior rejected. 



The discovery by some animals of how to make feathers 

 with which to cover their bodies and wings with which to 

 fly, was a great invention and improvement, which caused 

 a great change in the flying animals. The living struc- 

 tures that have existed in the past show the same gradual 

 evolution and improvement by new inventions and dis- 

 coveries as the evolution of man from his savage state 

 up to the present time. 



Mr. Haeckel states, "Cells are grouped together un- 

 der the idea of sculptors or builders because they alone in 

 reality build the organisms." 



As to this fact, I agree with him, but I do not agree 

 with him when he states that the cause of the building is 

 only a chemical and mechanical force, and that it all 



