380 CELL INTELLIGENCE THE CAUSE OF EVOLUTION 



animals. The cell must know from experience with those 

 bacteria in the past ages that they are very dangerous. 

 His knowledge of the germ tells him that he must not 

 run any chances but destroy it on sight. It is a very 

 singular thing, but statistics show it to be a fact, that the 

 germ cells of consumption will not kill a woman with 

 child, but will always give her a chance to give the child 

 a start in life. This would seem to indicate that the germ 

 of consumption is a friend to the human race. We never 

 stop to realize that the cells are at the base and the cause 

 of all life that we see. A school text on botany has the 

 following to say about the cells that build plants and 

 trees : 



"The peculiar work of green plants or green parts of 

 plants is to manufacture the kind of food best known as 

 sugars and starch, such foods being called carbohydrates. 

 This manufacture is exceedingly important, for all life is 

 dependent upon it. If green plants should stop the manu- 

 facture of carbohydrates, the food supply of the world 

 would soon be exhausted. All other forms of food are 

 derived from carbohydrates in some way and only green 

 plants can add to the stock that is being drawn upon con- 

 tinually. This means that green plants must manufacture 

 carbohydrates, not only for their own use but also for the 

 use of animals and of plants that are not green." While 

 this statement is true, still we must remember that the 

 plant does not produce anything. It is the cells in the 

 plant that produce in the same manner as it is the men in 

 the factory who are the real producers. 



Man has been able to discover but very few of the 

 chemical secrets known by the plant building cells and 

 the other cells who know how to make their own food 

 from the raw material of earth, air and water. The power 

 to produce a light without the expenditure of heat has 



