Elementary text-book of zoology / by C. Claus ; translated and edited by Adam Sedgwick.

  • Claus, Carl, 1835-1899.
Date:
1889
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Elementary text-book of zoology / by C. Claus ; translated and edited by Adam Sedgwick. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    16/622 (page 14)
    expressed in the above discussion of the properties of living things and unorganised bodies, we musfc not in our criticißm of the relations between them lose sight of the fact, that in numerous lower forms of life, metabolism, and all the activities of life can be completely suppressed by the removal of warmth and water, without there- by injuring the capacity of the organism for continuing to live; and further, that in the smallest organisms, which are proved to be such by their capacity of repro- ducing themselves by their meta- bolism, and it is impossible, by means of the very strongest powere of the microscope, to detect any Organization. Since, moreover, the organic matter composing such forms consist of combinations which can be produced by synthe- sis, independently of Organization, we must allow that hypothesis a ceiiiain justification which asserts that the simplest forms of life have been developed from unorganised matter, in which the same Chemical elements occur as are found in organisms. Since no fundamental difference has been shoavn to hold between the matter and force of crystals and those of organised beings, we might look upon the first appearance of life as essentially only the Solution of a dlfficult mechanical problem (wth Du Bois Bejunond), were we not obliged to conclude that there is present even in the simplest and most primitive organisms the germs of Sensation and consciousness, attributes which we cannot regard as simply the i’esults of the movement of matter. Pio. 3.—Sohiaomyceces (after P. Cohn). a, Miorococcus; i, Bacterium termo, Bacteria found in putrefying bodies both in motile and Zooglaea form.