176 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 



make this mould live and grow in all its parts. The 

 internal and intimate form of the mould, in all 

 organized beings, alone determines their movement 

 and their relative position during the phenomena of 

 nutrition and development. 



^ And, when death extinguishes the fire of organiza- 

 tion — that is to say, the power or influence of the 

 mould — decomposition follows j whilst the organic mole- 

 cules, which all survive, finding themselves at liberty 

 during the dissolution and putrefaction of the body, pass 

 into other bodies as soon as they are brought under the 

 influence of some other organic mould. Thus they are 

 able to pass from animal to vegetable, and from vege- 

 table to animal, without alteration, and with the con- 

 stant and ever-active power of bearing with them 

 nutritive phenomena and life. Only, there occurs an 

 infinity of generations spontanies in the interval during 

 which the power of the organic mould is in abeyance — 

 that is to say, in that interval of time during which the 

 organic molecules find themselves at liberty in the midst 

 of the tissues of dead and decomposing organisms, and 

 whilst they have not been assimilated by the moulding 

 power of organisms belonging to ordinary species of 

 animals and plants. Such organic molecules, always 

 active, strive to affect the putrefying matter; they 

 appropriate some inert particles, and produce by their 

 union a multitude of small organisms^ some of which, 

 such as earth-worms, fungi, etc., appear as tolerably 

 large animals and vegetables, whilst others, almost 



