First Parents. 17 



Some of these single-celled creatures do not 

 even wait for their food to come to them, but 

 themselves go in search of it. 



How can this be when they have no legs, no 

 organs of locomotion whatever? 



But again the protoplasm is equal to the situ- 

 ation ; desiring to move, it will not be deterred 

 by lack of organs, for this remarkable substance 

 has the power of "contractility" as it is called, 

 the peculiar power that muscle possesses, — its 

 power of moving. The protoplasm of the cell 

 that is to move thrusts out a part of itself, a little 

 advance guard of protoplasm, to which the re- 

 mainder of the creature is then drawn. 



So we now see that protoplasm can act where 

 it is, and that it can move to another place. We 

 see that it can digest, or change crude food into 

 body material for its own use. But more than 

 this, it is also sensitive, that is, has within itself 

 something which in higher life develops into nerve 

 matter. Lastly, it has the power of reproduction, 

 which is all important to the continuance of its 

 species on the earth. 



Thus the tiny cell has within its protoplasm all 

 the conditions of life and growth and continuance. 



There is a little living being, well known to 

 science, composed of but a single cell; whether 

 it is a plant or an animal, who shall say? We call 

 it amoeba. It belongs to those lowest forms of 

 life called protozoa, and like all living things has 



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