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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.
The earlier and lower stage are the unnucleated cytodes, the body of which consists of only one kind of albuminous matter the homogeneous plasson or "formative matter." A phytomoneron, the globular plastids of which secrete a gelatinous structureless membrane. The Monera are permanent cytodes. Their whole body consists of soft, structureless plasson.
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.
When living things made their first appearance on our planet, the very complex nitrogenous compound of carbon that we call plasson, which is the earliest material embodiment of vital action, must have been formed in a purely chemical way from inorganic carbon-compounds. The first Monera were formed in the sea by spontaneous generation, as crystals are formed in the mother-water.
Their whole body consists merely of a simple particle or globule of structureless plasm or plasson.
The soft slimy plasson of the body of the moneron is generally called "protoplasm," and identified with the cellular matter of the ordinary plant and animal cells. But we must, to be accurate, distinguish between the plasson of the cytodes and the protoplasm of the cells. This distinction is of the utmost importance for the purposes of evolution.
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