LIFE 



of organization. If one is disposed to assume for this 

 molecular structure a simple chemical substance, a 

 deliberate design, and an " intelligent natural force" for 

 cause, one is bound to do the same for powder, and say 

 that the molecules of charcoal, sulphur, and saltpetre 

 have been purposively combined to produce an ex- 

 plosion. It is well known that powder was not made 

 according to a theory, but accidentally discovered in 

 the course of experiment. The whole of this favorite 

 machine-theory of life, and the far-reaching dualistic 

 conclusions drawn from it, tumble to pieces when we 

 study the simplest organisms known to us, the monera; 

 for these are really organisms without organs — and 

 without organization! 



I endeavored in my Generelle Morphologie (1866) to 

 draw the attention of biologists to these simplest and 

 lowest organisms which have no visible organization or 

 composition from different organs. I therefore proposed 

 to give them the general title of monera. The more I 

 have studied these structureless beings — cells without 

 nuclei! — since that time, the more I have felt their 

 importance in solving the greatest questions of biology— 

 the problem of the origin of life, the nature of life, and 

 so on. Unfortunately, these primitive little beings are 

 ignored or neglected by most biologists to-day. O. 

 Hertwig devotes one page of his three -hundred -page 

 book on cells and tissues to them; he doubts the exist- 

 ence of cells without nuclei, Reinke, who has himself 

 shown the existence of unnucleated cells among the 

 bacteria (beggiatoa), does not say a word about their 

 general significance. Btitschli, who shares my monis- 

 tic conception of life, and has given it considerable 

 support by his own thorough study of plasma- 

 structures and the artificial production of them 

 in oil and soapsuds, believes, like many other 

 writers, that the "composition of even the simplest 



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