284 The Umty of the Organism 



higher animals. His j^osition cannot be fully understood 

 without taking into account his view that the protozoa, 

 being part and parcel of the animal kingdom, are subject to 

 its general laws, that is, modes of life, distribution and classi- 

 fication of that kingdom. 



In this fact hardly less than in the structure of individuals, 

 he saw proof that the Infusoria are complete organisms. 

 Guided by these theoretical views, the warrantableness of 

 whicli later researches have made many times greater than 

 they were when Ehrenberg propounded them, it is not sur- 

 prising that he was led to interpret into various parts he 

 could see only imperfectly, resemblances to the organs of 

 higher animals, which resemblances did not as a matter 

 of fact exist. The stomachs, hearts, genital organs, and 

 so on, which he believed he saw in many of the species, dis- 

 appeared before the criticism of Dujardin, Kollicker, von 

 Siebold and others. But here is the point of chief theoretic 

 importance. Although these particular organs went down 

 before criticism, criticism by no means deprived the animals 

 of all organs. It is in neglect of this last fact that current 

 teachings do Ehrenberg injustice. His "conception of the 

 protozoa" was destined to be overthrown only as to the 

 sort of organization he believed them to have. It is gratify- 

 ing to find that in this conclusion I am in essential agree- 

 ment with so eminent an observational student of the pro- 

 tozoa as C. C. Dobell. In a recent quite remarkable essay 

 this author writes, "To my mind, Ehrenberg (1838) in 

 spite of his incorrect interpretations in matters of detail, 

 was far nearer to the truth when he saw Protista as \mlkom- 

 mene Organismen' than any more modern biologist who re- 

 gards them as analogues to parts of multicellular beings." ^ 



As between the conception of organization in all living 

 beings, no matter how small and simple, and the conception 

 of living beings so small and simple that they are without 

 organization, there can be no question that all inductive I 



