LIFE'S ANOMALIES 21 



nerves and muscles for moving, with gills or lungs 

 for breathing, with blood that contains a special 

 substance (haematoglobin) for the attraction of 

 oxygen from the air. Yet it reserves cases to 

 show that functions can be performed without 

 functional apparatus, and that complicated activi- 

 ties may be developed by the simple texture of 

 the body. Animalcules (protozoa), that are alto- 

 gether devoid of sense organs or nerves, distinguish 

 degrees of light, recognize their particular food, 

 absorb and digest it, move with great rapidity 

 and precision by the vibration of nerveless 

 appendages. Creatures of the jelly-fish type 

 (Ccelenterata) fix oxygen from the air without 

 either blood or breathing organs ; and earth- 

 worms, belonging to an order much higher up the 

 scale, have neither gills nor lungs, but breathe 

 through the skin. The processes of reproduction, 

 the growth of embryos, the course in which special 

 organs have been evolved, abound with incon- 

 sistencies and irregularities which tear holes in 

 any unifying theories, and serve to show that Life 

 is indifferent to rule. In plant-life the cross 

 fertilization of flowers is general: it appears to 

 strengthen vitality ; yet species are numerous 

 whose flowers always fertilize themselves are so 

 formed, indeed, as to render cross-fertilization 

 impossible. Amongst animals, sexual reproduc- 

 tion is the rule ; but female plant lice (aphides) 

 produce fully-developed young without the inter- 

 vention of a male ; the oak apple gall-fly 

 dispenses with males in producing every second 

 generation ; the eggs from which drone bees 

 are hatched are developed by the queen with- 

 out male assistance. The eye of the pecten 

 (mollusc) is similar in construction and action to 

 that of vertebrate animals : yet it is developed 

 in a different manner and of different materials. 



