Thus, the simplest structured living creatures are 

 formed from living monads — infusoria by means of spontaneous 

 generation. How do variations develop among living creatures 

 leading to so many multiformed organic shapes? By what means 

 were the two kingdoms of the organic world, plants and animals, 

 distinguished from each other? Vellanskii answered these 

 questions by stating that this distinction begins with the 

 development of primary creatures which still carry general 

 properties but which at the same time have already acquired 

 rudiments of the properties of plants or of animals. 



The predecessors of animals, in his opinion, are polyps, 

 and the predecessors of plants are the fungi. Simultaneously, 

 there is observed in the polyp a characteristic property of the 

 male sex (the creative property of man) , and that of the female 

 sex (the creative quality of woman) is seen in the fungi. This 

 idea is confirmed by the following, which compares the capability 

 of regeneration in the coelenterata and fungi : "Not any branch 

 of a polyp grows into a whole polyp; but each grain, by its 

 jelly-like material, produces from itself directly such an 

 organic body. Therefore all jelly-like material in the coral 

 is a fruitful seed, which is characteristic in all known 

 creatures of the male sex. Contrary to that, not any part of 

 the fungus develops into a whole fungus, and consequently 

 there is no creative force in it such as that produced by the 

 polyp." 26 



Vellanskii followed successfully the analogy of the origin 

 of the male in higher organisms with the polyp and the female 

 with fungus. He used the process of fertilization, which 

 precedes the conception of a new organism, to demonstrate the 

 weakness of empirical science, and he contrasted it with 

 Naturphilosophical attempts to explain the process of conception 

 and development. Thus: 



The necessity of the male and female sex for the 

 conception of all animals which are born from males 

 and females is known; but the proper force and the 

 effect of each in the production of the embryo, which 

 might be discovered through studies of sex, remain 

 an unsolved problem in empirical physiology. Evolution- 

 ists, assuming prepared embryos in the mother, 

 attribute some help in their development to the father. 

 Panspermists , considering the embryo as being ready in 



26. Ibid ., p. 410. 

 156 



