212 Dynamic Theory. 



to the boundary line between the vegetable and animal kingdom if, 

 indeed, we are not on the animal side of it. The difference between a 

 Monera, or an Amoeba, and one of the lower fungi, is not such as dis- 

 tinguish an animal from a vegetable, but, rather, one animal from an- 

 other. The Amoaba is locomotive, which the Fungus is not, except as 

 a zoospore. The Amoeba takes into his system with his food mineral 

 matter, which he cannot assimilate and which he subsequently excretes. 

 The Fungi also take in unnecessary and unassimilable mineral matters 

 with the juices they absorb, and they remain in their tissues. Both ex- 

 crete carbonic acid in respiration. The Amoaba takes some of his food 

 solid and some by endosmose through his ectosark. The Fungus gets 

 all by endosmose in the simpler species, and by suction and absorption 

 ( which is much the same thing ) in the differentiated species. 



It has been stated that at times some of the Protococci float about in 

 the water without their usual cellulose cover, and as formless protoplasm 

 are still able to proceed with their functions of growth and division. 

 This is a chlorophyl plant, and is supposed to live on carbon extracted 

 from carbonic acid. But in this shape evidently it may come into con- 

 tact with food particles and receive nourishment, as the Monera does, 

 and thus be saved some work. And a frequent repetition of such ex- 

 perience would tend to establish a habit of going naked and absorbing 

 the more liberal supply of ready-made food. It is extremely probable 

 that this is precisely what happens in such cases as that of the naked 

 Protococcus, as we know it does in the Monera which does not possess 

 chlorophyl. But the fact that simple organisms live so close to the 

 boundary line between the animal and vegetable kingdoms as to be 

 able to wander back and forth across it, does not depend altogether on 

 the foregoing inference, although it lacks but little of being a demon- 

 stration. Botanists can tell by spectrum analysis, and otherwise, 

 whether coloring is due to pigment simply or to chlorophyl, and it is 

 generally conceded that the green coloring of all plants is due to chloro- 

 phyl. But, as mentioned in Chap. 24, there are also green animals in 

 abundance, and it has been asserted that this green is due to chlorophyl, 

 in the case of the Euglena, Stentor, man}' Radiolarians and fresh water 

 sponges among the Protozoa, in the polyp hydra of the Coalenterata, and 

 in the Turbellarian worms. In the latter the decomposition of carbonic 

 acid gas has been proved to take place. This is precisely what we 

 should expect. These little animals, originating from a vegetable an- 

 cestry and not sufficiently differentiated to be always in reach of pre- 

 pared food, have so often had nothing to eat that their chlorophyllian 

 apparatus has been brought into requisition often enough to prevent its 

 deca} r . 



From the foregoing it becomes perfectly plain how an organism, by a 



