126 EVOLUTIONISTS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY, 



in the course of planetary evolution. The origin 

 of life [geiieralio originaria) occurred upon the 

 shores, where water, air, and earth were joined." 

 The Ur-Schleim assumed the form of microscopi- 

 cally minute bladders, and Nature has for its unit 

 an infinity of these. Each of these bladders has 

 an outer dense envelope and a fluid internal con- 

 tent. This ' infusorium,' as he calls it, has the form 

 of a sphere, and is developed in the following man- 

 ner: it is first an aggregate of an almost infinite 

 number of organic points; as the result of the oxy- 

 dizing process, the original fluid form is replaced 

 by a vesicle with a flowing interior and firm periph- 

 ery ; in this are united the three life processes 

 of feeding, digestion, and respiration. The whole 

 organic world consists of infusoria, and both plants 

 and animals are simply its modifications. 



Generation, according to Oken, is the synthesis 

 or bringing together of organic spheres ; as with 

 Robinet, it is the synthesis of germs, and with 

 Maupertuis and Diderot, the synthesis of particles. 

 Like the Greeks, Oken imagined that the combina- 

 tion of these infinitely numerous mucous points 

 or infusoria, composed of carbon mixed in equal 

 quantities with water and air, found its most favour- 

 able conditions at the junction of sea and land. 

 *' All life," he says, "is from the sea; the whole sea 

 is alive. Love arose out of sea-foam." In one 

 passage, he says : " If new individuals originate, 

 they could not originate directly from others, but 



