THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 305 



microscopical evidence does not enable us to get rid of 

 the doubt that the smallest visible specks of living 

 matter may have originated from invisible 'germs' of 

 such organisms, neither does it any more enable us to 

 dispense with the supposition that the smallest visible 

 crystals may have originated from pre-existing invisible 

 c germs ' of crystals. The very existence of the one 

 set of invisible c germs 'is, in fact, just as hypothetical 

 as the existence of the other. Plastide-particles and 

 Bacteria we do know but concerning the existence of 

 invisible c germs/ of these we know just as little as 

 we do concerning the existence of invisible c germs ' 

 of crystals. 



VOL. i. 



