Omaha daily bee., 1903-06-07
The First Stomach
CONTINUED from Page Three.)

right But we, knowing of cell growth,
have learned how the animal" became
an animal. We have learned how it
achieved n stomach.
What l have explained simply and with
out scientific terms is the ground principle
of the famous theory of the Gastraea.
1t was first formulated sharply and de-
cisively by Ernst Haeckel. Springing from
the Greek word Caster Che stomach. 1t
describes that cup-shaped animal form
whose genesis the reader has beheld.
The ''arch-stomach animal we might
call it in plain English.
Haeckel furnished proof that such a crea-
ture, with primitive division of labor"
into skin and stomach must, indeed, have
been the arch and root form OF the whole
higher animal world in the gray days OF
world evolution.
The formation of primitive beings into
cell communities, cell clumps or cell blad-
ders occurred repeatedly in the beginning
of life. Such cell clumps then developed
in two wholly different directions-some in
the direction of the many-celled, true
plant, the others in the direction of the
many-celied, true animal.
The plaHt shows no stomach in the sense
of the stomach Of the animal. Even though
some higher plants-the so-called insecti-
vorOus p,ants-prcdUce juices like the gas
trio juices and digest captured insects,
the process has nothing in common with
genuine stomach and intestinal formation.
But in all animals-with the exception of
only a few degenerate parasites-the
stomach is the most characteristic organ
and one that is developed even where the
nervous system still is lacking.
So the beginning OF the stomach, the ap-
pearance IN the world of the arch-stomach
animal, or gastraea, is the great vital mo-
ment in the life history of the higher ami
mails.
In the family tree Of these higher ami
mails, as Haeckel has worked 1t out, the
gastraea forms tho point of departure for
all ramifCations. all upward development.
Two main branches go out from 1t In the
beginning, wo king by two different meth
DDS the mode OF life Of the cell cup.
In one branch the living cup gave up It's
winning life and fastened itself to the
ocean bottom with its lower, closed side,
thus becoming the ancestor of the animal
sponGes and the polyps. In the other
branch It continued to swim or crawl
straight ahead and thus gradually extend
itself Iaterally. This led finally to a SYM
metrical development of both ends. An
opening appeared at the end opposite the
cup, or mouth.
With that opening the cup creature be-
came a tube. The Intestine had formed.
The creature was a worm.
The worm, in turn, became the primordial
ancestor of the highest animals-the soft
creatures, such as mOllusks; the prickle
skins. such as sea stars; the articulated
animals. such as crabs, spiders, insects, and
the vertebrates.
And the vertebrate, that began with the
fish. ended in the mammal with man.
The true, primitive g~astraea has not been
discovered yet. But there are many living
forms that stand so near the gastraea that
Haeckel himself has felt justified in naming
them "gastraedas," and in a recent work
1t has been possible to publish a plate with
no less than sixteen figures of such crea-
lures.
Our fresh water pOlyp belongs to this
group. 1t exists today practically with