102 THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION 



(ii) The attempts to present the process of evolution in 

 a concrete form demonstrate the impossibility of 

 spontaneous generation. 



(a) The attempt of Naegeli 1 to render comprehen- 

 sible the origin of the simplest organisms from inorganic 

 matter must be regarded as a complete failure. The 

 ' being originating from spontaneous generation ' must, 

 according to him, ' be in the first place perfectly simple ' 

 1 without external form and without internal members/ 

 pure albumen, which then nourishes itself. That 

 ' scarcely merits the name of an organism, but it 

 may be the commencement of a series which leads to 

 an organism/ ' Growth and reproduction gradually 

 acquire by inner relations greater definition/ etc. 

 In this way ' gradually all qualities of the monad are 

 newly generated/ 



Shortly stated, the entire allegation is to the effect 

 that a cell, as it now is, is first analysed and then again 

 brought together piece by piece, whereby nourishment 

 and reproduction gradually come in as firmly established 

 peculiarities. The first really living being that we know 

 of (according to Naegeli the ' monad ') ' must, in the 

 organized arrangement of its parts, be already far 

 advanced and therefore have a long series of ancestors 

 behind it/ Certainly ! That, however, which existed 

 before the ' monad ' was the purely hypothetical ' probien ' 

 which, if they lived, must also have had that organic 



1 Naegeli : Theorie d. Abstammungslehre, pp. 83, 86. 



