Aug. 15, 1872] 



NATURE 



299 



THE BEGINNINGS Of LIFE * 

 11. 



LEADING on to the newer and more important ob- 

 servations in the latter portion of the work, we 

 have a sketch of the relation of crystals and organisms, 

 in which a variety of curious and suggestive facts are 

 adduced, tending to show that there is a striking analogy, 

 if nothing more, in their mode of origin. The influence 

 of changed conditions is shown to produce very similar 



results to both, and the views of Mr. G. H. Lewes— that 

 organisms are not always united by the link of a common 

 heritage, but that many may owe their similarity to 

 having originated under the influence of uniform organic 

 laws acting under uniform conditions — is quoted with ap- 

 proval. Just as similar crystals are produced in similar 

 liquids under like conditions, so may low organisms of 

 similar or identical structure be produced ; and just as 

 the fragments of a crystal will, under favourable condi- 

 tions, form each an entire and perfect crystal, so do low 



V '';.• •'•^■f /°\ -/HS!-?°X{v*'<? 





Fig. I — Segmentation of Embkvonal Areas into Monads — (x 1.670). 

 Fi'St sU!;e of dirterentl.ition. /: Second -Stig; : area almost hinii^en-ous .ind refr.ictive. c. First trac-s of .iejineiitatioii. ./. Segmental ion mo-e 

 complete; units highly refractive e. Units less refractive ; forming t.aiUess corpuscles. / Fully developed Monads derived from such corpuscles. 



Fig. 2. -Phases 



:-HiSTORVOF Monads and A% 



7, Monad.s in diflferent stages of growth. /', i. Similar Monads which have lost or retracted their (la 

 Am<eb;c. (i, d. Resulting Amreba: in active and motionless rtages. i-.y, ^, //. Stages by which 1 

 Stages by which other Amcebse become resolved into Bacteria. 



c. Monads about to be transformed into 

 > Amoibai become encysted, i,/:, /, ni. 



organisms multiply by fission, each part becoming a 

 perfect whole. The difference between crystals and or- 

 ganisms is said to be less radical than has been supposed, 

 and is mainly due to the much greater complexity and 

 instability of the molecules which go to build up the 

 latter. Crystals are statical ; organisms, dynamical 

 aggregations of molecules. Specks of new living matter 



* "The Reginnings of Life : being 'ome account of the Nature, Modes of 

 Origin, and Transformations of Lower Organisms." By H. Charlton Has- 

 tian, M.A., M.D , F.R.S. (2 vols. London : Macmillan ard Co. 1872.) 



soon aggregate into certain definite forms just as crystals 

 do, but being much more complex and unstable, they are 

 liable to much greater variations and successive modifi- 

 cations. The excessive variability and instability of low 

 forms of life is dwelt upon as an anomaly on the ordinary 

 theory, when viewed in connection with their supposed 

 wonderful stability for immense periods of time. It is 

 generally believed that every one of the lower animals is 

 a descendant of other low forms which lived in ages far 

 anterior to the Silurian epoch, Many of the foraminifera. 



