28 
Memoir; but I found it quite impossible to do justice to the 
subject in even a lengthy resume ; and I thought it much 
preferable to give a faithful translation of the Monograph, 
even though it were not possible to convey thereby to the 
reader that charming perspicuity of style that characterises 
the writings of Professor Haeckel. In this the Editors fully 
agreed with me. 
The translation is the work of my friend, Mr. W. F. 
Kirby, one of the assistants in the Museum of Natural 
History of the Royal Dublin Society, and one who is well 
known as an accomplished Entomologist ; but I have read 
and revised every word of it, and I believe it will be 
found to convey to the reader an accurate idea of the 
facts and reasonings of Professor Haeckel. The German 
scholar will recollect the difficulty of translating into Eng- 
lish many German technical words ; and considerations of 
expense have, in many instances, induced me to leave sen- 
tences as they were at first printed, though it would have 
been easy to have reduced them into better English than 
that in which they now appear. The matter is so good and 
so valuable that the language may well be forgiven. The 
latter portion of the Memoir will appear in the April number of 
this Journal.] 
I . — Historical Introduction. 
In my ‘ Generelle Morphologie der Organismen,’ 1 I have 
called those forms of life standing at the lowest grade of 
organization Monera, 2 their whole body, in a fully deve- 
loped and freely moving condition, consists of an entirely 
homogeneous and structureless substance, a living particle 
of albumen, capable of nourishment and reproduction. These 
simplest and most imperfect of all organisms are, in many 
respects, of the highest interest. 3 For the albumen-like, or- 
ganic matter meets us here as the material substratum of all 
life-phenomena, apparently not only under the simplest form 
as yet actually observed, but also under the simplest form 
which can well be imagined. Simpler and more incomplete 
organisms than the Monera cannot be conceived. 
Indeed, the whole body of the Monera, however strange 
this may sound, represents nothing more than a single, tho- 
roughly homogeneous particle of albumen, in a firmly adhe- 
sive condition. The external form is quite irregular, con- 
1 Ernst Haeckel, 1 Generelle Morphologie der Organismen,’ Berlin 1866. 
2 vols. 
2 How'ipriQ, simple. 
3 L. c., vol. i, cap. v, p. 135 ; cap. vi, p. 182 ; vol. ii, p. xxii. 
