FUNGI. 309 



swarm with an immense number of minute animal- 

 cules swimming in all directions. Associated with 

 this revival of the old theory were the names of 

 Needham in England, and Buffon in France. They 

 said that " these things were absolutely begotten in 

 the water of the decaying substances out of which the 

 infusion was made. It did not matter whether you 

 took animal or vegetable matter, you had only to 

 steep it in water and expose it, and you would soon 

 have plenty of animalcules. They made an hypo- 

 thesis about this which was a very fair one. They 

 said, this matter of the animal world, or of the higher 

 plants, appears to be dead ; but in reality it has a 

 sort of dim life about it, which, if it is placed under 

 fair conditions, will cause it to break up into the 

 forms of these little animalcules, and they will go 

 through their lives in the same way as the animal or 

 plant of which they once formed a part." 



An Italian naturalist, Spallanzani, then entered 

 the field in opposition to the theory, as his compatriot 

 Redi had previously done, and the dispute waxed 

 hot and strong ; for although Spallanzani did not 

 make good his views that the process of production 

 might be stopped by boiling the water, he was be- 

 lieved to be on the right side. Experiments were 

 being made, first on one side and then on the other, 

 but in all cases not entirely satisfactory. The 

 tendency, however, of all was to show that infusoria 

 were developed from little spores or eggs, which 

 were constantly floating in the atmosphere, but which 

 lose their power of germination if subjected to heat. 

 A period of quiescence then intervened, although 



