396 An Examination of the Opinions of Bremser and Others 



body is occupied by a very curious and very perfect series of ova- 

 ries and oviducts, convoluted in many folds^ and capable of produ- 

 cing an immense number of eggs, we cannot easily reconcile these 

 appearances, and this expenditure of a generative apparatus, with 

 the notion that this animal is produced spontaneously by a fermen- 

 tative process in the intestines. Even in the Distoma hepaticum, 

 one of the most simple of the Entozoa, which contains a stomach 

 and mouth, but no anus, distinct traces of an ovary may be per- 

 ceived. It is true in some of the more simple animals we find two 

 modes of generation. In the Nats proboscidea, the last joint of 

 the body gradually enlarges, and at length drops off a distinct ani- 

 mal, while there is in this species also an ovarium, capable of pro- 

 ducing young after impregnation. * The common Polypus propa- 

 gates as it were by slips from its body, each part becoming a living 

 animal of the simplest construction ; but, in order to preserve the 

 species during the cold of winter, before the commencement of that 

 season this same Polypus lays eggs for a future progeny.t Yet 

 even here there is no analogy to the supposed spontaneous genera- 

 tion of Entozoa. In the case of the Nais and Polypus similar ani- 

 mals are produced from a parent stock ; whereas in the Entozoa 

 distinct species are supposed to be generated in the bodies of ani- 

 mals of a widely different order. 



We cannot therefore, without more positive and direct proof, ad- 

 mit the theory of spontaneous generation to be a correct one. As 

 far as the investigations of naturalists have extended into the wide 

 range of animal existence, it appears to be an unerring law of na- 

 ture, that each particular species of animal derives its origin from 

 a parent of the same species, and, however various the means, uni- 

 formly by a conceptive process, where the influence of two sexes, 

 either placed in separate animals, or conjoined in one, is necessary. 

 Hence spontaneous production is contrary to all known analogy ; 

 and if uniformly among the thousands of distinct species, from the 

 highest to the lowest which form the great bulk of the animal cre- 

 ation, we find one undeviating law established, something more 

 than theory is necessary to lead us to the conclusion that this law 

 is violated in a few particular instances. 



We have no grounds for believing that there exists a creative 

 property or impulse in matter, as in the supposed cases of infusory 

 animals springing from fermenting substances, or of the production 

 of Entozoa. For why should this impulse be so partial and limited ? 

 And why should we not find new species springing up around us 

 on all hands ; or why should this impulse have ceased with respect 

 to the larger animals, and still continue in full operation with a 

 few of the inferior classes ? 



The learned and philosophic naturalist Blumenbach,J is of opi- 



• O. F. MuUer von Wiirmem des Sussen und Sulzigen Wassers. 

 -|- Pallas Elenchus Zoophytorum, p. 28. 

 + Nat. Hist, by Gore, p. 276. 



