246 E VOL UTION A ND DOGMA . 



In accordance with his theory of Monism, 

 Haeckel, as might be supposed, is a strenuous advo- 

 cate of spontaneous generation, to which he gives 

 the new names, plasmogeny and autogeny. His 

 chief reason for believing in autogeny is, that if we 

 do not do so, we must believe in creation and a Crea- 

 tor, which, according to his notions, is both anti- 

 scientific and anti-philosophical. 



The first product of spontaneous generation was 

 the moneron, a simple unicellular, structureless bit 

 of slime or protoplasm, or, as Haeckel himself de- 

 scribes it, a form of life of such extreme simplicity as 

 to deserve to be called an " organism without or- 

 gans." It is due to the action of some natural force, 

 heat, electricity, or what not, on brute matter, and is 

 not only the simplest form of life that can exist, but 

 also the simplest form conceivable. No one, it is 

 true, has ever seen a moneron, not even Haeckel 

 himself. But this matters not. The moneron, if it 

 did not exist, should have existed because theory 

 demands it. 



To confirm his views regarding this first form- 

 stage of the human ancestral line, Haeckel appeals to 

 the famous bathybius, over which Huxley and him- 

 self went into such ecstasies for awhile, but which 

 eventually proved to be as imaginary as the moneron 

 itself. 



The immediate successor of the monera in the 

 phylogeny of man were the amoebae. These differed 

 from the former in having a nucleus in the cell-sub- 

 stance or protoplasm. Both these stages existed as 

 simple individuals. They were, however, succeeded 



