326 EVOLUTION AND DOGMA. 



pothesis," the distinguished physicist tells us, " may 

 seem wild and visionary ; all I maintain is, it is not 

 unscientific." 



But even if it were proved that the first germ of 

 life had been brought by some seed-bearing meteor- 

 ite from the depths of space, or from some far 

 distant world, it would, as is obvious, afford no ex- 

 planation either of the real nature or of the ultimate 

 origin of life. It would be but removing the diffi- 

 culty farther away ; not giving it a solution. 



Still another question confronts us. Was there 

 but one primordial germ, the origin and parent of 

 all the multitudinous forms of life which now varie- 

 gate and beautify the earth, or were there many 

 germs independently implanted in the prepared soil 

 of this globe of ours ? And if many, did they make 

 their appearance simultaneously, or at different and 

 widely separated periods and localities ? 



Darwin inclines to the belief that " all animals 

 and plants are descended from some one prototype." 

 From this prototype, or primordial germ, as from a 

 common root, is developed " the great tree of organic 

 life," a tree which is c6nceived as having " two main 

 trunks, one representing the vegetable and one the 

 animal world," while each trunk is pictured as " di- 

 viding into a few main branches," the branches sub- 

 dividing into a number of branchlets, and these, in 

 turn, into " smaller groups of twigs." Prof. Weis- 

 mann, on the other hand, is of the opinion that not 

 one, but numerous organisms first arose " spontane- 

 ously, simultaneously, and independently one of 

 the other." 



