EVOLUTION 



171 



secondary ages presented in a high degree the particular 

 conditions favourable for the production of osmotic growths. 

 During these long ages an exuberant growth of osmotic 

 vegetation must have been produced in these primeval seas. 

 All the substances which were capable of producing osmotic 

 membranes by mutual contact sprang into growth, — the 

 soluble salts of calcium, carbonates, phosphates, silicates, 

 albuminoid matter, became organized as osmotic productions, 



Fig. 64. — Osmotic shells and corals. 



— were born, developed, evolved, dissociated, and died. 

 Millions of ephemeral forms must have succeeded one another 

 in the natural evolution of that age, when the living world 

 was represented by matter thus organized by osmosis. 



The experimental study of osmotic morphogeny adds its 

 weight of evidence in the same direction. When we see under 

 our own eves the cells of calcium become organized, develop 

 and grow in close imitation of the forms of life, we cannot 

 doubt that such a transformation has often occurred in the 

 past history of our planet, and the conviction becomes irresistible 



