Descent of Man. 247 



the evolution of many primordial genetic germs, which 

 all sprang spontaneously from the same primal proto- 

 plasm, and afterwards differentiated by metamorpho- 

 logical or other modes of selection into the numberless 

 present species and varieties of animals. 



Man's first progenitors thus probably appeared on 

 the earth as spontaneously produced protoplasmic 

 cells or ovules, hundreds or thousands in number, 

 developed by sexual and magnetic affinities from a 

 flux of the chemical elements in some ambrosial inlet 

 of water. These cells, or those which survived, were 

 propelled probably by fiagella or cilia, and grew firstly 

 into protozoa. Conditions being altered, and their 

 elementary constitution affected and changed by 

 their food, their increase in size and the nature and 

 action of their environments, they were nextly 

 converted into gastrulse, then into jelly-fishes, and 

 later into vertebrates. In this latter state they 

 probably migrated immense distances from one 

 another along the shores of their natal sea, feeding on 

 minute infusoria, etc., and subjecting themselves to 

 different conditions and environments so that different 

 organic functions developed. On entering new inlets 

 and rivers, and still growing larger, they then meta- 

 morphosed into amphibia, and browsed on herbs as 

 well as algae. Forsaking their natural element — the 

 water — in some stress of circumstances, and adopting 

 a life on land, they would then change into small 

 mammals, develop a coat of hair, legs, and a tail, and 

 subsist on grass and herbs. Still another meta- 



