THE MONERA AND ARCHIGONY. 343 
formerly and generally believed to exist between organic 
and inorganic bodies is almost or entirely removed, and the 
way is paved for the conception of spontaneous generation. 
Of still greater, nay, the very greatest importance to the 
hypothesis of spontaneous generation are, finally, the exceed- 
ingly remarkable Monera, those creatures which we have 
already so frequently mentioned, and which are not only the 
simplest of all observed organisms, but even the simplest of 
all imaginable organisms. I have already described these 
wonderful “organisms without organs,” when examining 
the simplest phenomena of propagation and inheritance. 
We already know seven different genera of these Monera, 
some of which live in fresh water, others in the sea (com- 
pare above, p. 184; also Plate I. and its explanation 
in the Appendix). In a perfectly developed and freely 
motile state, they one and all present us with nothing but a 
simple little lump of an albuminous combination of carbon. 
The individual genera and species differ only a little in the 
manner of propagation and development, and in the way of 
taking nourishment. Through the discovery of these organ- 
isms, which are of the utmost importance, the supposition 
of a spontaneous generation loses most of its difficulties. 
For as all trace of organization—all distinction of hetero- 
geneous parts—is still wanting in them, and as all the vital 
phenomena are performed by one and the same homogeneous 
and formless matter, we can easily imagine their origin by 
spontaneous generation. If this happens through plas- 
mogeny, and if plasma capable of life already exists, it 
then only needs to individualize itself in the same way as 
the mother liquor of crystals individualizes itself in crys- 
tallization. If, on the other hand, the spontaneous generation 
