77/^ 



126 



THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 



prlmittva of Prof. Haeckel. These have presented them- 

 selves in the form of minute irregularly-shaped, almost 

 transparent specks of homogeneous jelly, about ^^ 



in diameter. 



seldom 



Professor Huxley ^ as 'The Physical Basis of Lifej and 

 the upholders of the Protoplasm or Sarcode theory main- 

 tain that this substance has an essential unity of nature. 

 So that, in spite of minute specific and isomeric dif- 



such as we have just been de- 



i^idered one 

 and one 



m 



the 



Pfotoplas 

 tiated condition, 

 lassofseemingl 

 the life-m 

 their ai 



their interior. They underwent slow, though obvious 

 changes in form ; and they exhibited slight to-and-fro, 

 Or somewhat jerkingly-progressive movements. Essen- 

 tially similar organisms will, in all probability, here- 

 after be found to be most widely distributed. They 

 are, in almost every respect, similar to the minute jelly- 

 specks, which we shall afterwards find making their ap- 

 pearance in previously homogeneous organic solutions; 

 and they are, we believe, thoroughly primordial organ- 

 isms, capable of originating de novo in organic solutions. 

 Concernirig this part of our subject, however, we shall 



have more to say hereafter. 



This then is the material which was spoken of by I contractility whic 



even m 



of jelly suffices : 

 of the 1 



jomena 



aid of organs oi 

 phenomena of '| 

 we see the first 



fe conscious sei 

 sessed by those 

 'atlier than at tl 

 'tat which has 



to draw 



a rigid 



ferences, we have in reality to do with one and the same | closely to that wl 

 generic substance, whether existing as the ' contents' of 

 animal and vegetable cells, or as naked masses of proto- 

 plasm — whether as parts of higher organisms, or as single 

 independent beings 



>ies from 



scribing. The belief that all these various forms are but 



I < 



Fortnightly Review,' 1869. 



%ti„g li 



