30 THE EVOLUTION OF MAN. 



Here arises another question : " Whence, in the begin- 

 ning of the organic history of the earth, at the commence- 

 ment of the Laurentian period, came the earliest Amoebae ? " 

 To this there is but one reply. Like all one-celled organ- 

 isms, the AmrBbse have originally developed only from the 

 simplest organisms know to us, the Monera. These Monera, 

 which we have already described, are also the simplest con- 

 ceivable organisms. Their body has no definite form, and 

 is but a particle of primitive slime (plasson) — a little mass 

 of living albumen, performing all the essential functions of 

 life, and everywhere met with as the material basis of life. 

 This brings us to the last, or perhaps the first question in 

 the history of evolution — the question as to the origin of 

 the Monera. And this is the momentous question as to the 

 prime origin of life — the question of spontaneous generation 

 (generatio spontanea or cequivoca). 



We have neither time, nor indeed have we any occasion, 

 to discuss at length the weighty question of spontaneous 

 generation. On this subject I must refer you to my 

 " History of Creation," and, especially, to the second book 

 of the Generelle Morphologie, and to the discussion on 

 Monera and spontaneous generation in my " Studien uber 

 Moneren und andere Protista." "^ I have there stated 

 my own views on this important subject in very great 

 detail. Here I will only say a few words on the ob- 

 scure question as to the first origin of life, and will answer 

 it so far as it concerns our radical conception of the 

 history of organic evolution. In the definite, limited 

 sense in which I maintain spontaneous generation (gene- 

 ratio spontanea) and assume it as a ■ necessary hypo- 

 thesis in explanation of the first beginning of life upon 



