FORMS OF LIVING-MATTER UNITS 101 



u 



spontaneous generation," though such a view 

 was most strongly urged by no less an authority 

 than Huxley, in opposition to my early experi- 

 ments, when he said, 1 in reference to the finding 

 of such organisms : ' If these can be shown to 

 be terms in the development of a known form, 

 the probability of the same form turning up again 

 spontaneously becomes by mathematical considera- 

 tions infinitely minute; and for my part I could 

 as soon believe that the calf I see grazing in a 

 meadow had been spontaneously generated from 

 the grass and flowers there." Language of this 

 sort, from one who was naturally regarded as an 

 authority on the subject, has doubtless helped for 

 many years to stave off the recognition of a great 

 truth. 2 



If, however, it is the fact that Bacteria and 

 Torulse are merely the primary forms most fre- 

 quently assumed by certain kinds of new-born 

 living matter, then obviously the form and struc- 

 ture of these units, as well as of the Moulds into 



1 Quart. Jrnl. of Micros. Science, October, 1870, p. 361. 



2 Professor Huxley was at this time President of the British 

 Association for the Advancement of Science, and the above 

 utterance was made on September 13, 1870, during an address 

 to a crowded meeting of the Biological Section " On the Relations 

 of Penicillium, Torula, and Bacterium." 



