Monocle

“ And how seldom circumstances were favourable to Gregory's eyeglass! Sometimes his environment was too sordid for it, sometimes too smart. To wear a monocle in the presence of the poor, the miserable, the analphabetic is too triumphantly pointed a comment on their lot. Moreover, the poor and the analphabetic have a most deplorable habit of laughing decisively at such symbols of superior caste. Gregory was not laughter-proof; he lacked the lordly confidence and unawareness of nature's monocle-wearers. ”

“ It was not until he asked whether I needed any money that I showed him the monocle and explained that I could not give it back to him until the pawnbroker had had a chance to correct his records.
"Quite right," he added again, "it's best to have everything shipshape. I always did it when I was in the business myself."
So, that night, Helen and I eloped, and my profession was found; but, before we went, I attended the conference presided over by Blackmore, who, with his colleagues, was overwhelmed with amazement when I produced the jewel. ”

“ This amphigony (or generatio digenea) is the sole form of reproduction in man and most of the higher animals. But in many of the lower animals and most of the plants we find also asexual multiplication, or monogony, by cleavage or budding. In the lowest organisms, the monera and many of the protists, fungi, etc., the latter is the only form of propagation.
Strictly speaking, monogony is a universal life-process; even the ordinary cell-cleavage, on which depends the growth of the histona, is a cellular monogony. ”

“ If these families existed, in fact, they could only be formed by the mixture, the successive variation, and the degeneration of the original species; and, if we admit, for once, that there are families in plants and animals, that the ass is of the family of the horse, and that he only differs because he has degenerated; we may say, with as much propriety, that the monkey belongs to the family of man, and he is a man degenerated; that man and the monkey had but one common origin, like the horse and ass ”

“ We will say that he has taken some primitive form of life for a pattern, a moneron, perhaps, the moat simple type of animal, consisting of a single cell of protoplasm. There still exists a difference between the moneron and the synthetically created cell. Chemically and physically they are the same, but the moneron is alive.
"What, is life? Broadly defined as we recognize it on this earth, it is a temporary union of mind and matter. ”

“ Thus you see that there is a great difference between "mongrels," which are crosses between distinct races, and "hybrids," which are crosses between distinct species. The mongrels are, so far as we know, fertile with one another. But between species, in many cases, you cannot succeed in obtaining even the first cross: at any rate it is quite certain that the hybrids are often absolutely infertile one with another. ”

“ Hence, life is not a result of organization, but vice versa. Amorphous protoplasm gives rise to organized forms. Having already, in previous writings, called attention to the high importance of the Moneres from this and other points of view, I can here only refer to those papers. At present I must content myself with pointing out the importance of the Moneres in connection with the great question of the origin of life. The oldest organisms, sprung by spontaneous generation (Urzengung) from inorganic matter, must have been Moneres. ”

“ Some of our naturalists assume that the monkeys which frequent the other parts of the earth are their descendants, who, stunned by the shock, have lost their reasoning powers, while, at the same time, they show glimmerings of their origin. This is, in truth, the better opinion of our savans; and it is usual with us, to distinguish all the human species of monkeys by the name of ‘the lost monikins.’ Since my captivity, chance has thrown me in the way of several of these animals, who were equally under the control of the cruel Savoyards ”

“ Monogamy, mon-og′a-mi, n. marriage to one wife only: the state of such marriage.—adjs. Monogam′ic, Monog′amous.—n. Monog′amist. [Gr. monos, one, gamos, marriage.]
Monogenesis, mon-ō-jen′e-sis, n. development of the ovum from a parent like itself.—adj. Monogenet′ic.—ns. Monog′enism, the descent of the whole human family from a single pair—also Monog′eny; Monog′enist, one who maintains this.—adjs. Monogenist′ic; Monog′enous, generating by fission, gemmation, &c.: pertaining to monogenism: (math.) having a single differential coefficient considered as a rule of generation. ”

“ No, reply the polygenists; for the differences are greater than those which characterize certain species. In order to meet this objection, the monogenists have had recourse to what is called the middle theory, and to that of the cross-breeds. The whole of the external circumstances under which the representatives of a species exist, constitute what is called the middle or medium, to which monogenists, supporting themselves on undoubted facts, attribute the power of gradually changing the medium type of a species. ”

“ No one, I suppose, seriously doubts that this is in the main the true theory of life, though there may still be some uncertainty as to the causes and mode of operation, and of the different steps and stages of this evolution. Monogeny therefore in this general sense of evolution from some primitive mammalian type, may be accepted as the present conclusion of science for man as it has come to be for the horse, dog, and so many other animals which are his constant companions. ”

“ The steps of this long ladder extend uninterruptedly from the simple cell-division of the protists to the monogony of the histona, and from this to the complicated amphigony of the higher organisms. In the simplest case, the cell-cleavage of the monera, propagation (by simple transverse division) is clearly nothing more than transgressive growth. But even the preliminary [257] stage of sexual differentiation, the copulation of two equal cells (gameta) , is really nothing but a special form of growth. ”

“ Here we are in the presence of unity; there is no longer any question of association. Most living cells are composed of four parts—a membranous envelope, a contained fluid in which is a special globule, and the nucleus, containing the nucleolus. Of these four parts only one, the contained semi-fluid, perfectly limpid or finely granular, the protoplasm, is indispensable. It is in this strange substance that life, which needs no other apparatus to manifest itself, resides. Those remarkable beings, the Monera, are formed of it alone. ”

“ As a general rule animals and plants belonging to distinct species do not produce offspring when crossed with each other, and the term hybrid has been employed for the result of a fertile cross between individuals of different species, the word mongrel for the more common result of the crossing of distinct varieties. ”

“ Just as simple as the process of nutrition is the propagation of these primitive creatures, which in reality we can neither call animals nor plants. All Monera propagate themselves only in an asexual manner by monogony; and in the simplest case, by that kind of monogony which we place at the head of the different forms of propagation, that is, by self-division. ”

“ 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 Gregarinæ) .
Fig. 228—A moneron (Protamœba) in the act of reproduction. ”

“ I repeat that we must call in the aid of the hypothesis only as regards the Monera, the structureless “organisms without organs.” Every complex organism must have been evolved from some lower organism. We must not assume the spontaneous generation of even the simplest cell, for this itself consists of at least two parts—the internal, firm nuclear substance, and the external, softer cellular substance or the protoplasm of the cell-body. These two parts must have been formed by differentiation from the indifferent plasson of a moneron, or a cytode. ”

“ On the other hand, I consider it to be very probable that certain exceedingly imperfect organisms of the simplest structure, forms of species of an exceedingly indifferent nature, as, for example, many single-celled Protista, but especially the Monera, the simplest of them all, should have several times or simultaneously arisen in their specific form in several parts of the earth. For the few and very simple conditions by which their specific form was changed in the struggle for life may surely have often been repeated, in the course of time, independently in different parts of the earth. ”

“ No human male, however, can completely man more than one woman, any more than one gonad can unite with more than one other germ cell. Complete fusion of two cells requires the entirety of one cell uniting with the entirety of another. This is the type of physical and psychical immortality. The union of two single cells contains the potentiality of development of all the qualities inherent in both, but in new combinations. ”

“ When two species are crossed, one has sometimes a prepotent power of impressing its likeness on the hybrid. So I believe it to be with varieties of plants; and with animals, one variety certainly often has this prepotent power over another variety. Hybrid plants produced from a reciprocal cross generally resemble each other closely, and so it is with mongrel plants from a reciprocal cross. Both hybrids and mongrels can be reduced to either pure parent form, by repeated crosses in successive generations with either parent. ”

“ Let us observe at the outset, how far the phenomena of eugenesic or non-eugenesic hybridity may affect the solution of the great question pending between the Monogenists and the Polygenists.
What in animals in general, characterises the eugenesic hybridity, is the unlimited fecundity of mongrels of the first degree between themselves. It is by no means necessary that the parent species should be as prolific in their crossings as in their direct unions, nor that the mongrels should be as productive as their parents, as large, as strong, and as long-lived, etc. ”

“ Then the fore paws being entirely used for catching the swallows, after a few generations turned to hands, and so the cats eventually became monkeys, the transition from which animal to the Morion family is obvious.”
“I don’t see it!” murmured my uncle.
“The monkeys,” the table rapped on, “migrated to a country where they were fed upon by a tribe of wolves, who, as they sprang into the trees, caught them by the tail, and so, those monkeys with the shortest tails having the best chance of life, a species was formed without any tails at all. ”

“ The first stage of organic life in the Animal kingdom (as in the Vegetable and Protista kingdoms) was formed by perfectly simple Monera, originating by spontaneous generation. 124 The former existence of this simplest animal form is, even at present, attested by the fact that the egg-cell of many animals loses its kernel directly after becoming fructified, and thus relapses to the lower stage of development of a cytod without a kernel, like a Moneron. ”

“ Monocentridae.—The single genus Monocentris, with two species, one from the seas of Japan, China, and India, and one from the South Pacific, is very nearly related to the Berycidae, but differs in the absence of ribs on the anterior six vertebrae, in the very large bony scales, forming together a coat of mail, and in the structure of the ventral fin, which is reduced to a strong spine and two or three very short soft rays. The spines of the dorsal fin are very strong and isolated. ”

“ Two species of monkeys are found in these forests—the white-faced mono, whose face is nearly devoid of hair and beard, and the long-tailed, howling monkey. These animals are migratory and, as they build no nests, it is difficult to locate them. ”

“ In spite of these great and serious difficulties, we cannot here refrain from taking one more cursory glance at the ramification of the human pedigree, and at the same time considering, from the point of view of the theory of descent, the much discussed question of the monophyletic or polyphyletic origin of the human race, and its species or races. As is well known, two great parties have for a long time been at war with each other upon this question; the monophylists (or monogenists) maintain the unity of origin and the blood relationship of all races of men. ”

“ The number of various forms, developed from these simple original structural elements of the skeleton, is astonishing, and there are described more than three hundred genera and nearly two thousand species of this legion in the following pages. This large number may be easily increased by subsequent observers. Since in all these Monopylea the characteristic structure of the central capsule is identical, and also the structural elements of the siliceous skeleton are similar, it is very probable that they may have arisen from a single common stock. ”

“ How, then, according to the Darwinian theory, is man related to the monkey? The answer to this question is simply that the relationship is the same in kind, though not the same in degree, as that by which the most perfect Caucasian race is related to the lowest race of Australian, or Papuan, or Bosjesman savages. ”