146 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
Fungi , which, are as unquestionably plants. Whilst the Gre- 
garince are made a sub-family of the Amcebce , the Amcebce are 
separated from the Rhizopoda ; and the Foraminifera , Ileliozoa, 
and already incongruous Radio laria, are served up as an olla 
podrida under the name of the Rhizopoda ! 
But let us now direct our attention to the special group 
with which we are more immediately concerned, namely, the 
Monera. 
With a marvellous eye to the value of precise dates, Haeckel 
tells us that the Monera originated in the beginning of the 
Laurentian period, 4 by spontaneous generation as crystals from 
the matrix, out of simple inorganic combinations of carbon, 
oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen. If we tried to constitute, 
a priori, the simplest conceivable organisms, we should always 
be compelled to fall back upon such Monera. They are the 
simplest permanent Cytods. Their entire body consists of merely 
soft, structureless Plasson. However thoroughly we examine 
them with the help of the most delicate chemical reagents and 
the strongest optical instruments, we yet find that all the parts 
are thoroughly homogeneous , each particle in Thefnass being a mere 
counterpart of every other particle composing it. They are, there- 
fore, in the strictest sense, organisms without organs, since they 
possess no organs, and are not composed of various particles. 
In a perfectly developed and freely mobile state, they one and all 
present us with nothing but a simple lump of an albuminous combi- 
nation of carbon. The individual genera and species differ only a 
little in the manner of propagation and development , and in the way 
of taking nourishment. They can only be called organisms in 
so far as they are capable of exercising the phenomenon of 
organic life, of nutrition, reproduction, secretion, movement. 
Although in all real Monera the body consists merely of such a living 
piece of Plasson , yet amongst the Monera which have been observed 
in the sea and fresh water , ive have been able to distinguish eight 
different genera and sixteen species , varying in the mode in which 
their tiny bodies move and reproduce. The extant Monera afford 
us organ less organisms, such as must have originated by spon- 
taneous generation at the first beginning’ of life upon the earth. 
Even amongst the Monera at present known there is a species which 
probably even now always comes into existence by spontaneous gene- 
ration, namely, the wonderful Bathybius Hceckelii. This has been 
proved to be a necessary hypothesis, and is demanded by the re- 
quirements of the human understanding for causality. . . . The 
Monera may be fed with carmine or indigo powder if scattered 
in the drop of water under the microscope in which they are 
contained. The grains of colouring matter gradually penetrate 
the slimy body, and are then driven about in irregular direc- 
tions. The smallest separate particles or molecules of the Moneron - 
