THE PHYLOGENY OF THE SOUL. 155 



cell, the stem-cell (cytula), or the impregnated egg-cell 

 (see p. 63). As this cell has a ''soul" from the 

 commencement, so had also the corresponding uni- 

 cellular ancestral forms, which were represented in 

 the oldest series of man's ancestors by a number of 

 different protozoa. 



We learn the character of the psychic activity of 

 these unicellular organisms from the comparative 

 physiology of the protists of to-day. Close observa- 

 tion and careful experiment have opened out to us 

 in this respect, in the second half of the nineteenth 

 century, a new world of the most interesting 

 phenomena. The best description of them was 

 given by Max Verworn in his thoughtful work, based 

 on original research, Psycho-physiological Studies of 

 the Protists. The work includes, also, the few 

 earlier observations of the " psychic life of the 

 protist." Verworn came to the firm conclusion that 

 the psychic processes are unconscious in all the 

 protists, that the phenomena of sensation and move- 

 ment coincide with the molecular vital processes in 

 their protoplasm, and that their ultimate causes are 

 to be sought in the properties of the protoplasmic 

 molecules (the plastklules) . " Hence the psychic 

 phenomena of the protists form a bridge that 

 connects the chemical processes of the inorganic 

 world with the psychic life of the highest animals ; 

 they represent the germ of the highest psychic 

 phenomena of the metazoa and of man." 



The careful observations and many experiments of 

 Verworn, together with those of Wilhelm Engelmann, 

 Wilhelm Preyer, Richard Hertwig, and other more 

 recent students of the protists, afford conclusive 

 evidence for my " theory of the cell-soul." On the 



