404 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXII. No. 561. 



under given conditions is available to tire 

 vegetable organism, may also, under corre- 

 sponding conditions, be within the power of 

 the animal organism. And as the inter- 

 mediary action of the bacteria has its basis in 

 ' expediency ' rather than in necessity, it fol- 

 lows that nature can dispense with any proc- 

 ess, when ends of higher evolutionary order 

 are aimed at. Hence, she recognizes no im- 

 mutably fixed ways of procedure, but mani- 

 fests everywhere along the lines of least resist- 

 ance, using methods which, for the time be- 

 ing, conform closest to the most advantageous 

 conditions. Nor are there to be found any 

 organically or physiologically interposed im- 

 passable barriers between the various king- 

 doms of nature. Therefore, if the animal 

 kingdom is evolved from the vegetable, there 

 can be no power of function or assimilation in 

 the latter, which is not also present — though 

 perhaps latent — in the former. The larger 

 must necessarily in itself contain the lesser, 

 as a function or equality, once evolv.ed, is for- 

 ever retained in the subsequent output of a 

 similar evolution; while at the same time 

 continually increasing in strength and com- 

 plexity. Hence, whenever ' expediency ' de- 

 mands the functioning in an entity of a cer- 

 tain power, the latter will make its appearance 

 on the field of evolution though conditioned 

 by natural environments. 



Through his painstaking experiments. Dr. 

 Wohltman has shown that in the absence of 

 the specific bacteria, the plant organism has 

 proceeded to exercise unsuspected functional 

 powers. That similar powers, under corre- 

 sponding conditions, may be called into action 

 in the animal organism, can not reasonably 

 be doubted, and the absence of ' free nitrogen ' 

 in the animal system, i. e., the reduction of 

 nitrogenous tissue caused by a longer or 

 shorter abstinence from food, may probably 

 bring about such conditions. Of course, on 

 the other hand, the circumstance raust not be 

 lost sight of that, even if the proper conditions 

 have been present, the evolution of the great 

 majority of individuals may not yet have 

 reached a stage of development where the in- 

 herent powers of their nature are adequate to 

 an immediate response to the call. Hence, 



the utilization of this great physiological fact 

 must be preceded by a self-conscious recogni- 

 tion and appreciation of the evolutionary pos- 

 sibility of the process. That in course of 

 physical and mental unfoldment, the indi- 

 vidual shall be able to absorb his nitrogenous 

 needs directly from the atmospheric air, we 

 have, in view of the above facts, no triie rea- 

 son for doubting. 



In the journey through natural evolution 

 we are met by neither air-tight nor life-tight 

 compartments. To their origin and essence 

 all forms are identical; and a rising French 

 scientist. Dr. Bariere of Lyons, has arrived at 

 the position that this identity of the entities 

 of evolution extends not only to the character 

 of origin, but also to the place of origin. Ac- 

 cording to him, the cradle in which life found 

 its first receptacle was rocked by the waves of 

 the ocean, or, in the words of the old account 

 of Genesis which the doctor quotes — not in 

 support of, but as a case of curious coin- 

 cidence with, his theory : " The spirit of God 

 moved upon the face of the waters." ''It" (the 

 primitive life). Dr. Bariere continues, "sprang 

 from the single cell, which constitutes prac- 

 tically the same manifestation of forces to-day 

 as in a hypothetical dawn of existence. And 

 in the bodies of all plants and animals the 

 cells are continually bathed in a fluid, which, 

 whether lymph, blood, or vegetable sap, differs 

 in no essential way in its composition from 

 sea water." 



But more than this, the crystal itself has 

 yielded up "its secret to the scrutinous search 

 of science, and confessed to a possession of the 

 same powers of absorption as found in the 

 kingdoms above it. At the special stage in 

 the formation of crystals when they are found 

 to collect themselves from their saline solu- 

 tions into concrete substance, they seem to 

 behave like sentient beings, governed in their 

 movements by orderly purposes. In this in- 

 termediate stage between solution and crystal- 

 line fixity they exhibit all the characteristics 

 of complete cell life, with cell-wall, nucleus, 

 nucleoli and granulated cell body, while all 

 throughout the transformation they show a 

 very marked self-adjusting activity. 



This fact would make it appear very prob- 



