218 CELL INTELLIGENCE THE CAUSE OF EVOLUTION 



their isolated eremitic lives and unite to form communi- 

 ties, are compelled to restrict their natural egoism, and 

 make concessions to altruism in the common interest. 

 Even in the globular coenobia of volvox and magosphaera 

 the special form and movement and mode of reproduction 

 are determined by the compromise between the egoistic 

 instincts of the individual cells and the altruistic need of 

 the community." 



This great German scientist has got his mind so filled 

 up with the old ideas of what is understood by intelligent 

 beings, that he can not get his mind to work into seeing 

 the possibility of a microscopic being like a cell possess- 

 ing intelligence. He thinks that his size is against him. 

 He must admit that the cell has had enough intelligence 

 to build up the intelligent individual known as Mr. Haec- 

 kel, and still Mr. Haeckel will claim the intelligence him- 

 self and deny it to his maker. The following description 

 of a single cell and of those just beginning to associate 

 themselves together in communities like plants and ani- 

 mals, is from a textbook on zoology : 



"In some cells, special parts are covered with count- 

 less hairs or cilia, which strike the water in a uniform 

 direction, like a row of oars, and force the animal for- 

 ward. Thus we see that the single cell is capable of very 

 different adaptations and so we can not be surprised if 

 the cells that compose the higher animals assume such 

 enormously different forms. In the protozoa, the one 

 cell discharges all the vital functions of locomotion, nutri- 

 tion, respiration and reproduction. 



"There is a certain animal in our fresh waters called 

 the Pandorina. It consists of sixteen cells, all homogen- 

 eous, and each discharging all the functions. Each can 

 produce the animal by detaching itself from the cluster 

 and subdividing until it makes sixteen cells. Here is no 



