THE WONDERS OF LIFE 



animals and plants (such as the nerve-cells). They 

 wrongly conclude that this is universal. In my opinion, 

 this complication of the structure of the elementary 

 organism is always a secondary phenomenon, the slow 

 and gradual result of countless phylogenetic processes of 

 differentiation, initiated by adaptation and transmitted 

 to posterity by heredity. The earliest ancestors of all 

 these elaborate nucleated cells were at first simple, un- 

 nucleated cytodes, such as we find to-day in the ubiq- 

 uitous monera. We shall see more about them in the 

 ninth and fifteenth chapters. 



Naturally, this lack of a visible histological structure 

 in the plasma-globule of the monera does not exclude the 

 possession of an invisible molecular structure. On the 

 contrary, we are bound to assume that there is such a 

 structure, as in all albuminoid compounds, and espe- 

 cially all plasmic bodies. But we also find this elaborate 

 chemical structure in many lifeless bodies; some of 

 these, in fact, show a metabolism similar to that of the 

 simplest organisms. We will return subsequently to 

 this subject of catalysis. Briefly, the only difference 

 between the simplest chromacea and inorganic bodies 

 that have catalysis is in the special form of their metab- 

 olism, which we call plasmodomism (formation of 

 plasm), or "carbon-assimilation." The mere fact that 

 the chromacea assume a globular form is no sign what- 

 ever of a morphological vital process; drops of quick- 

 silver and other inorganic fluids take the same shape 

 when the individual body is formed under certain condi- 

 tions. When a drop of oil falls into a fluid of the same 

 specific gravity with which it cannot mix (such as a 

 mixture of water and spirits of wine), it immediately 

 assumes a globular shape. Inorganic solids usually take 

 _the form of crystals instead. Hence the distinctive 

 feature of the simplest organism, the plasma-particles 

 of the monera, is neither anatomic structure nor a 



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