98 HAECKEL 



less than 144 new species, and each species proved 

 a fresh master of decorative art. At the same 

 time he studied the nature of the gelatinous body. 

 Ehrenberg's theory was destroyed for ever. Grant- 

 ing that there were certain difficulties (since 

 explained away) in the way of admitting the exist- 

 ence of real unicellular creatures, he at all events 

 gathered an enormous amount of new and helpful 

 information as to the nature of these soft, almost 

 organless beings and of the slimy living matter 

 (called sarcode or protoplasm) of which they were 

 composed. His mind matured rapidly in these 

 quiet days at Messina, while his aesthetic nature 

 was plunged in admiration of the beauty of the 

 siliceous coats. The last scruple with regard to 

 the old story of creation fell from him like the 

 covering of a pupa. If a naked bit of slime like 

 the radiolarian could form from its body this 

 glorious artistic structure, why may not man also, 

 as he paints his pictures under the glow of Italy's 

 colour, be merely a natural being, of like texture to 

 the radiolarian ? And if this radiolarian had in its 

 life built up the crystalline, rhythmic structure, why 

 may there not be merely a diSerence of degree, not 

 of kind, between the '^ dead " crystal and the 

 ^* living " radiolarian ? 



In May, 1860, Haeckel returned from Messina 

 to Berlin. He brought with him splendid draw- 

 ings of the perishable body of his treasures, 

 numbers of prepared specimens, and whole bottles 

 full of their imperishable shells. On the 17th of 

 September, 1860, he made the first communi- 



