2 74 '^HE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 



-^^-Qo" ^^ diameter, or they might be even larger. They 

 were either spherical or ovoid, with more or less sharply- 

 defined borders. Some were quite translucent, whilst 

 others were more opaque, owing to the presence of 

 actual granules, or, at all events, to a granulated 

 appearance in their interior. Those which were trans- 

 lucent and sharply defined had the closest resemblance, 

 M. Pasteur says, to the spores of fungi ; whilst amongst 

 the other materials, bodies resembling encysted Infu- 

 soria were occasionally found, and also globules re- 

 sembling the eggs of these creatures. ''Mais quant a 

 aflBrmer,' he says, 'que ceci est un spore, bien plus 

 la spore de telle espece determinee, et que cela est 

 un oeuf et Foeuf de tel microzoaire, je crois que cela 

 n'est pas possible.'' M. Pasteur could, in fact, make 

 no more definite statement concerning them — he could 

 only announce his own impression that they were 

 organized bodies of some kind^. 



We must, therefore, bear in mind that even these 

 experiments of Pasteur have only sufficed to bring to 

 light certain minute particles, having a general resem- 

 blance to spores of fungi or ova of Infusoria. He 

 found nothing which he could state was the product 

 of such or such organism, or which he has absolutely 

 proved to be organized, by having watched its develop- 



1 Referring to the figures of these bodies given in M. Pasteur's 

 Memoir, Prof. Owen says (' Anat. of Vert.' vol. iii. iS68, p. 814): — 'Of 

 the various vi^ell-marked forms of ova or germs of lower organisms, I 

 know not any recognizable in the figures above cited.' See also M. 

 Robin's ' Traite du Microscope,' 187 1, p. 821. 



