558 



THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 



a new mode of moving equilibrium which may of 

 necessity entail changes in form and structure. 



We have, therefore, primordial specks of livino- 

 matter assuming the forms of Bacteria, of Torulx, 

 and of the simplest corpuscular Algse, all of which 

 may miultiply their kind indefinitely; we have these 

 organisms at last taking on more continuous modes 

 of growth, and thus unfolding into the most varied 

 forms of simple Fungi, and also into filamentous or 

 thalloid Algx : whilst the latter, according to Dr. 

 Braxton Hicks and others, may, in their turn, undergo 



r 



modifications whereby they give rise to simple Lichens 

 or Mosses — all of which also possess the power of self- 

 multiplication. At other times, however, instead of 

 witnessing the gradual unfolding of simple living units 

 into higher forms, we may see changes take place in 

 aggregations of the simplest units, which, in different 

 cases, may terminate in the evolution of large Fungus- 

 srms, of Amcebse, of Monads, of Ciliated Infusoria, 

 or even of Rotifers and Nematoids. These various 

 animal forms — each of which is capable, by one or other 

 method, of multiplying its own kind — are also to a very 

 great extent mutually convertible into one another, and, 

 in addition, the several forms are capable of being 

 derived more or less directly from portions of vegetal 

 matter thrown off from one of the Algx, Lichens, or 

 Mosses — although other portions of similar matter may 

 become converted into Desmids or Diatoms. 



Thus 



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