Anatomy, Comparative; Embryology, Human; Evolution; Human beings -- Origin
The next stage to the simple cytode-forms of the Monera in the
genealogy of mankind (and all other animals) is the simple cell, or
the most rudimentary form of the cell which we find living
independently to-day as the Amoeba. The earliest process of inorganic
differentiation in the structureless body of the Monera led to its
division into two different substances--the caryoplasm and the
cytoplasm. The caryoplasm is the inner and firmer part of the cell,
the substance of the nucleus. The cytoplasm is the outer and softer
part, the substance of the body of the cell. By this important
differentiation of the plasson into nucleus and cell-body, the
organised cell was evolved from the structureless cytode, the
nucleated from the unnucleated plastid. That the first cells to appear
on the earth were formed from the Monera by such a differentiation
seems to us the only possible view in the present condition of
science. We have a direct instance of this earliest process of
differentiation to-day in the ontogeny of many of the lower Protists
(such as the Gregarinae).
The unicellular form that we have in the ovum has already been
described as the reproduction of a corresponding unicellular
stem-form, and to this we have ascribed the organisation of an Amoeba
(cf. Chapter 1.6). The irregular-shaped Amoeba, which we find living
independently to-day in our fresh and salt water, is the least
definite and the most primitive of all the unicellular Protozoa
(Figure 1.16). As the unripe ova (the protova that we find in the
ovaries of animals) cannot be distinguished from the common Amoebae,
we must regard the Amoeba as the primitive form that is reproduced in
the embryonic stage of the amoeboid ovum to-day, in accordance with
the biogenetic law. I have already pointed out, in proof of the
striking resemblance of the two cells, that the ova of many of the
sponges were formerly regarded as parasitic Amoebae (Figure 1.18).
Large unicellular organisms like the Amoebae were found creeping about
inside the body of the sponge, and were thought to be parasites. It
was afterwards discovered that they were really the ova of the sponge
from which the embryos were developed. As a matter of fact, these
sponge-ova are so much like many of the Amoebae in size, shape, the
character of their nucleus, and movement of the pseudopodia, that it
is impossible to distinguish them without knowing their subsequent
development.
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