ZOOLOGY* 397 



been formed under the observer's eye. Inside this cell, little granular masses are 

 developed, which begin to contract. Finally, minute eel-like animalcules are 

 developed there, which bore their way through the cell-wall into the water. 

 Funke, in his report of this observation, which, he says, he has verified, 

 asks, how is it possible to deny Spontaneous Generation here? Before our 

 eyes a grain of starch becomes a cell, in that cell are developed living forms, 

 which bore their way out. 



The reader will imagine the sensation which such an observation created. 

 He will agree with Funke, as I did, that if the fact were as he stated it, all 

 discussion was at an end. But ivas the fact as stated ? I tried in vain to 

 verify it. Not less than twenty separate potatoes were employed, always in 

 conjunction with ordinary starch, as a point of comparison; but although 

 the animalcules were abundant enough, I never could satisfy myself of the 

 first and all-important step, namely, the formation of a cell-wall round the 

 starch-grain. This was the more distressing, because it is at all times un- 

 pleasant to be unable to verify an observation, especially one made by a 

 careful and competent observer, and described in precise terms. 



I could not reject what Cicnkowski had positively affirmed, and Funke 

 positively confirmed, and was willing to suppose that there was some neces- 

 sary condition in the observation which I had not fulfilled. On the other 

 hand, I could not reject a doctrine on the strength of a fact about which any 

 doubt was permissible. In this state of suspense, I had the satisfaction of 

 hearing from Professor Naegeli, the celebrated microscopist, that he too had 

 been baffled at first in the attempt to verify this observation; but that, after 

 nearly a hundred trials, he had succeeded. He positively confirmed all the 

 statements Cienkowski had made. But, from that moment, my suspense 

 vanished. If the phenomenon was of such rare occurrence, there were rea- 

 sons for suspecting some other explanation than that of Spontaneous Gen- 

 eration. What the source of the error- was, might not be easily divined; but 

 it seemed very probable that error had crept in somewhere. 



In a late number of the Annales des Sciences Naturelles (x. 140), there is a 

 note which clears up the whole mystery. Cienkowski has himself discov- 

 ered the source of his own error. The membrane which seemed to form 

 itself round the starch-grain has had quite another origin. He has observed 

 the little monads swimming about, and has noticed one of them adhere to a 

 starch-grain, spread its elastic body round it, and finally envelop it, as the Anw.la 

 wraps itself round its food. This explains how the starch-grain comes to be 

 inside a cell ; and as this process was never suspected, and the starch-grain 

 was seen with a cell-wall, the idea of natural formation was inevitable, the 

 more so as the wall seemed to grow larger and larger. 



Thus has even this, the most striking case in favor of Spontaneous Genera- 

 tion ever adduced, been finally cleared up ; and the reader will probably agree 

 in the conclusion to which the whole of the facts advanced in this paper lead, 

 namely, that the Law of Generation is universal; the exceptions which have 

 been hitherto urged, have, one by one, been found to be no exceptions ; and 

 the presumption is, that even M. Pouchct's cases will be likewise explained. 

 It is quite possible that the generation of animalcules may take place spon- 

 taneously; but, although possible, it is not probable, and certainly is not 

 proven. 



In addition to the above communication by Mr. Lewes, the following 

 remarks by M. Dumas, before the French Academy, on the subject of M, 

 Pouchet's views, are given in Silliman's Journal, Xo. 82. 



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