Evolution; Knowledge, Theory of; Philosophy and religion
Note first what appear to be exceptions. Certain minute animal forms
present us either with no appreciable differentiations or with
differentiations so obscure as to be made out with great difficulty. In
the Rhizopods, the substance of the jelly-like body remains throughout
life unorganized, even to the extent of having no limiting membrane; as
is proved by the fact that the thread-like processes protruded by the
mass, coalesce on touching each other. Whether or not the nearly allied
_Amœba_, of which the less numerous and more bulky processes do not
coalesce, has, as lately alleged, something like a cell-wall and a
nucleus, it is clear that the distinction of parts is very slight; since
particles of food pass bodily into the inside through any part of the
periphery, and since when the creature is crushed to pieces, each piece
behaves as the whole did. Now these cases, in which there is either no
contrast of structure between exterior and interior or very little,
though seemingly opposed to the above inference, are really very
significant evidences of its truth. For what is the peculiarity of this
division of the _Protozoa_? Its members undergo perpetual and irregular
changes of form—they show no persistent relation of parts. What lately
formed a portion of the interior is now protruded, and, as a temporary
limb, is attached to some object it happens to touch. What is now a part
of the surface will presently be drawn, along with the atom of nutriment
sticking to it, into the centre of the mass. Either the relations of
inner and outer have no permanent existence, or they are very slightly
marked. But by the hypothesis, it is only because of their unlike
positions with respect to modifying forces, that the originally like
units of a living mass become unlike. We must therefore expect no
established differentiation of parts in creatures which exhibit no
established differences of position in their parts; and we must expect
extremely little differentiation of parts where the differences of
position are but little determined—which is just what we find.
This negative evidence is borne out by positive evidence. When we
turn from these proteiform specks of living jelly to organisms having an
unchanging distribution of substance, we find differences of tissue
corresponding to differences of relative position. In all the higher
_Protozoa_, as also in the _Protophyta_, we meet with a fundamental
differentiation into cell-membrane and cell-contents; answering to that
fundamental contrast of conditions implied by the terms outside and
inside. On passing from what are roughly classed as unicellular
organisms, to the lowest of those which consist of aggregated cells, we
equally observe the connection between structural differences and
differences of circumstance. Negatively, we see that in the sponge,
permeated throughout by currents of sea-water, the indefiniteness of
organization corresponds with the absence of definite unlikeness of
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