J 



614 



THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 



life (including the Foraminifera) which were to be found 

 in such situations at that time had been produced by 

 Archebiosis combined with Heterogenesis * so that if 

 the conditions have been always so similar in the 

 regions in question^ we might expect that more or less 

 similar forms would have been constantly arising by 

 Archebiosis and Heterogenesis, and that these would 

 also go through comparatively similar developmental 



changes. 



most 



Huxley says 



Certain well-marked forms of living 



beings have existed through enormous epochs^ 



sur- 



^ See p. 486. 



2 i 



Proc. of Roy. Instit./ vol. iii. p. I5'- 



\ 



n 



fl 



■r and e^^^ 

 the anii^ 



the follow 



cites 



stance 



) 



fern? 



ei 



are 



arently g 

 met with 

 oftl 



the cone 



true • because, as we have already pointed out, the 

 improbability is extreme that such low and unspecial- 

 ized forms should have existed through so many ages 

 without undergoing any appreciable advance in com- 

 plexity of organization. On the other hand, many of 

 the ordinary forms of Foraminifera may have been 

 produced originally, as well as in all subsequent periods, 1 persisting wi 



able from tha 

 tebeen dis( 



int] 



of vegetable 

 and surely it 



• • • « 



the occurrence of comparatively common hetero- 

 genetic changes : and such a view is all the more easy stances of tl 



for us to adopt now that we know how readily Arcellin^ ' Atlantic soui 

 are still engendered from the substance of dying Roti- 

 fers and other low organisms ^. 



Almost similar modes of reasoning are, moreover; 

 now applicable in order to explain the existence 

 through successive geological epochs of many other 

 lower forms of life. Concerning the facts, Prof. 



^P=cies of th 



assure us of 



lev ''^froi 



