CONCLUSIONS 417 



streams to run into the ocean. The intelligence of man 

 and the beaver can stop and compel the water to wait, 

 and to serve man or beaver in building- houses, dams or 

 irrigation works. 



Some people claim for the cell only irritability and not 

 intelligence. The word irritability is meaningless. They 

 poke a needle into a cell, or pour acid on him and when 

 he jumps around trying to escape or defend himself, they 

 say he is irritable. Such experiments and expressions 

 are pure nonsense. You tie any man down, and poke his 

 naked body with sharp iron bars, and burn him with acids 

 and poisons and his actions would also be irritable, what- 

 ever may be understood by that word. 



The actions of the cell when examined in his natural 

 habitat show the same intelligence and foresight as man. 

 Think of the amoeba, carrying with him material with 

 which he can make a coat of armor and cover himself 

 when necessary for self preservation. Whether this ani- 

 mal we call cell or amoeba came to exist by a chance 

 assemblage of matter or not we do not yet know. It took 

 place ages ago, before any plants or animals existed. We 

 find the same struggle for existence down on the lower 

 plane of life in the microscopic world where the cells live 

 as we do in the life of the larger beings of plants and 

 animals. 



It is not necessary in discussing the question at hand 

 to know how the cell came into existence. We are con- 

 cerned at this time with the questions, who produces 

 plants and animals, and how is it done. From careful 

 investigation of all the facts, it must be answered that 

 the cell produces plants and animals precisely in the same 

 manner as man produces houses, ships and railroads. 



The magnitude of the work done by the cell in the 

 past ages as evidenced by the coal deposits and fossil 



