ORIGIN OF LIFE 45 



Haeckel does not provide his first evolved beings with 

 anything which they can assimilate as food ; an essential 

 characteristic of all living beings. 



As far as we know it is only chlorophyll-bearing 

 organisms which can decompose carbon dioxide ; and, 

 although nitrogenous compounds are in some mysterious 

 way made out of ammonia salts by the " nitrifying " 

 species of bacteria, these are not supposed to live so/e(y 

 on inorganic matters. 



Hence the first beings must have been g-reen algce or 

 something of the sort, judging by our existing know- 

 ledge. 



The group of plants known as Schizophyta, i.e., 

 plants multiplying by " fission " only (or else by spores), 

 are divided into two groups. 



Schizophycce, of the nature of algse with green chloro- 

 phyll, and Schizomycetes, colourless fungi. These may 

 be regarded, Strasburger observes, as derivative forms 

 of the former. 



The Bacteria belong to this latter group. 



Prof. Vines says of the Schizomycetes : " They multi- 

 ply by cell-division, the nucleus undergoing 'mitotic' 

 division in connection with this process." That is the 

 complicated process already referred to. 



Strasburger says that the nuclei have not been 

 observed in many forms ; but were seen in certain species 

 examined by Hegler. 



If it should be proved to be actually wanting, such 

 must be due to extreme degradation, and not a character- 

 istic of a primitive type. 



The SchizophyccB, therefore, might be more probably 

 nearer to the original type. 



Much has been written for and against the conception 

 of a " Vital Force " in organisms. Haeckel, of course, 



