How could we pass from this primitive cell to the “inorganic,” the “lifeless,” the “dead,” the ordinary matter of stone, metal, and crystal? Haeckel believed that it was possible to make a step in that direction—not theoretically and philosophically, but practically—by showing that there were still living things on the earth that did not come up to the definition of a true cell, things that had not yet a nucleus in their soft gelatinous body. He discovered a number of tiny creatures that had a homogeneous particle of living matter for body, and showed no trace of a nucleus. The nucleus seemed to be the first beginning of an organ. It was altogether wanting in them. To these most primitive of all living things he gave the name of _monera_, or the absolutely “simple.” In these investigations it is very difficult to determine whether one of these tiny drops of plasm has a more or less transparent nucleus or not. It has often been affirmed in later years that these monera of Haeckel’s did not correspond to their description as living things without a nucleus, or creatures that were below the level of the true cell. It is, at all events, certain that there are to-day large numbers of the unicellular beings known as the bacteria in which no nucleus has yet been discovered by the most sceptical Thomas with the most powerful microscopes and best technical appliances of our time. It is the same with the chromacea (chroococci, oscillaria, nostoc-algæ), very lowly primitive plants whose whole body consists of a globule or granule of living plasm. However, here again the question is no longer of the first importance, now that evolution is entirely and generally accepted. At the time we are discussing the method chosen was all-important. Haeckel drew no conclusions without a solid basis. He believed he could give ocular proof of the existence of beings that were below the level of the cell. It was clear, at all events, that research in this department was only in its beginning, and could pour out wonder after wonder before the world recovered from its first fright over Darwinism. Then there was the other end of the system—man. Here again it was not merely a question of concluding on philosophic grounds that man _must_ have descended from the lower animals. Huxley had dealt in England with the question of man and the ape on the strict lines of zoology. He came to the important conclusion that man differs _less_ zoologically from the highest apes, the gorilla and chimpanzee, than they do from the lowest apes. He proved his point by a technical study of skulls and brains, not from abstract philosophical principles. It could be demonstrated in the museum or zoological institute to any student with some knowledge of anatomy as easily as the existence and position of any particular bone in the skeleton. Haeckel went even further.