386 CELL INTELLIGENCE THE CAUSE OF EVOLUTION 



will serve for comparison. A tentacle of a polyp when 

 touched slowly contracts, and if the touch has been rude, 

 the contraction presently extends to the other tentacles 

 and eventually to the whole body, but if you touch a 

 tentacle of a polyzoan or slightly disturb the water near 

 it the whole cluster of tentacles is instantly withdrawn, 

 along with the protruded parts of the creature's body, 

 into its sheath. The one creature has no specialized con- 

 tractile organs or fibers for conveying impressions. The 

 other has definite muscles and nerves." 



This should illustrate clearly what a nerve cell really is 

 and that the cells of a structure can perform different and 

 various kinds of work and do so until they discover the 

 better and more effective way of doing it, which is to 

 specialize and allot to each one his particular and specific 

 work. The polyzoan, however, has no brain, simply a 

 nervous system, that is, cells strung all over and through 

 the body who have nothing else to do but watch for 

 enemies and direct the actions of the individual. 



We have seen that the cell is a perfect animal, having 

 all the attributes of the highest developed animal. Ages 

 before the social cells discovered the advantages of asso- 

 ciating together for mutual protection and assistance, 

 they lived separate lives in different tribes and classes, 

 each one adapting itself to the particular climate or con- 

 ditions to which it happened to become exposed. It did 

 this just as plants, animals, and man do today. Just as 

 man is the cause of all the structures on earth produced 

 by him, such as railroads, armies, navies, cities, etc., so 

 the cell is the cause of the living things that we see. The 

 power in man to do these things is his intelligence, and in 

 the same manner it is intelligence that gives the cell his 

 power. The structures produced by man are based on 

 centuries of accumulated experience and so it is with the 



