110 ALL ANIMALS ARE ALIKE AT THE 



which resemble so much, and are often mistaken for those beau- 

 tiful and variously-colored sea-weeds which we meet with every- 

 where on our coast, form their graceful branchlets and plumes 

 by budding.. Among Articulates, the aquatic worms multiply 

 by self-division, which, in some instances at least, is a bud- 

 ding process also. The intestinal worms multiply at an enor- 

 mous rate by self-division. Even among Vertebrates, it has 

 been found that the lowest of them, the Fishes, also very fre- 

 quently, in their embryonic state, self-divide, as Lereboullet's 

 observations have so abundantly proved (see page 85). 



These characteristics are those which, as it were, reign among 

 the lowest forms of all groups ; and there is no more reason why 

 spontaneous generation should occur as a rule to produce the 

 higher animals, than that budding and self-division should do 

 so. Neither in the one case nor the other do we know why 

 these peculiarities are excluded from the higher groups. We 

 can only perceive that the phenomena are connected with some, 

 as yet but partially explained, law of development and deriva- 

 tive succession. When Trembley, in 1744, announced the won- 

 ders of the budding Hydras, and their regeneration after they 

 had been cut into numerous pieces, the question might have 

 been asked, with equal reason, by the skeptic, why do we not 

 see man and the quadrupeds budding, and reproducing their 

 arms and legs when cut off? 



Spontaneous generation, I think, stands in the same relation 

 to the higher forms that budding and self-division do; it is a 

 phenomenon confined to the lower forms, but extends upwards 

 more or less, and in various conditions ; thus, certain of the 

 Protozoa originate by spontaneous generation, i. e., altogether 

 independent of a parent, and rely upon secondary causes for 

 their development; certain other animals are partially depend- 

 ent upon a parent, but for the greater part of their embryonic 

 growth they depend upon secondary causes for the completion 

 of their development ; and these various degrees of independ- 

 ence of a parental influence we have seen correspond in certain 

 ways with the rank of the parent. 



