Page:The Last link.djvu/60

48 like the still existing Monera. Each consisted of a simple granule of protoplasm, a structureless mass of albuminous matter or plasson, like the recent Chromaceæ and Bacteriæ. The morphological value of these beings is not yet that of a cell, but that of a cytode, or cell without a nucleus. Cytoplasm and nucleus were still undifferentiated.

I assume that the first Monera owe their existence to spontaneous creation out of so-called anorganic combinations, consisting of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen. An explanation of this hypothesis I have given in my 'Generelle Morphologie.'

The Monera probably arose early in the Laurentian period. The oldest are the Phytomonera, with vegetable metabolism. They possessed the power (characteristic of plants) of forming albumin by synthesis from carbon, water, and ammonia. From some of these plasma-forming Monera arose the plasmophagous Zoomonera with animal metabolism, living directly upon the produce of