60 Notes on Mr. Cross s Acarus. 



two productions which appear to us the simplest of the orga- 

 nic kingdom — the very commencement of organization — and 

 which point out the moment when matter assumes a globu- 

 lar form, and is drawn out, in order to serve, the next moment, 

 for the formation of the various structures of all other beings, 

 whether animal or vegetable. 



In these very simple globules and filaments, we can per- 

 ceive no internal granulation, which might serve for their 

 reproduction. From this we might, perhaps, be led to think 

 that these two kinds of organisms, are undoubted elements of 

 those of a higher order, — that they are organized productions 

 formed immediately of matter. But who can say positively 

 that these Protosphceria and Protonem<B do not contain repro- 

 ductive globules, which escape the action of our most powerful 

 microscopes ? Or at all events, and which amounts to nearly 

 the same thing, who can say that these simple and diminutive 

 vegetables do not separate into particles, at the moment when 

 the life of association abandons them, in such a manner that 

 each particle, animated with a new and independent life, be- 

 comes a sort of scion, reproducing the species ? If these are 

 but conjectures, they have, at least, the merit of being in per- 

 fect accordance with what takes place every where else, ex- 

 cept in these two solitary productions. 



All our microscopic researches, with regard to organized 

 beings, whether animal or vegetable, and those the smallest 

 in their dimensions and the simplest in their structure, have 

 always shewn us, that their reproduction was entirely depen- 

 dent on an individual of the same kind which preceded them, 

 and which alone, drawing its materials of nourishment from 

 space, could expand itself into a germ, destined, by means of 

 separation, to reproduce its species. 



It is thus, that in proportion as we have more closely pur- 

 sued the comparative study of organized beings, and by means 

 of the microscope, have reached even the smallest gradations, 

 we have successively witnessed the disappearance of those 

 numerous generations presumed to be spontaneous, a race of 

 phantoms, which could not stand against the light of true and 

 constant observation. 



From our own knowledge, then, acquired by a long succes- 

 sion of labours in organization and physiology, we will take 

 upon ourselves to assert, that Mr. Cross has not created the 



kingdom, as compared with its most complex production — man. The Pro- 

 tonemcB are beings, complete of their kind ; they are not a thallus, or a stem 

 preceding or preparing a terminal fructification, such as, for example, the 

 stalk of the mushroom. 



