I40 SPONTANEOUS GENERATION. 



The mode of distribution of these infusorial spores upon the hay-fibres 

 indicated, in characters too clear to be mistaken, that all the essential 

 conditions of their life-cycle had been passed in close connection with it. 

 This interpretation was arrived at inductively, and its correctness was 

 recently put to the test, with the following remarkable results. On Satur- 

 day, October the loth, 1879, a day of intense fog, the author gathered 

 grass, saturated with dew, from the Regent's Park Gardens, the Regent's 

 Park, and the lawn of the Zoological Gardens, and submitted it to micro- 

 scopical examination, without the addition of any supplementary liquid 

 medium. In every drop of water examined, squeezed from the grass or 

 obtained by its simple application to the glass slide, animalcules in their 

 most active condition were found to be literally swarming, the material 

 derived from each of the several named localities yielding, notwithstanding 

 their close proximity, a conspicuous diversity of types. Heteroinita lens 

 and H. caudata were in all three instances abundantly present, as also 

 minute actively motile Bacteria. Other types, such as Vorticella infusiomim, 

 Dinomonas vorax, Hexamita inflata, Trepomonas agilis, and Phyllomitus 

 undulans, to say nothing of a host of unidentified spores and encystments, 

 occurred variously distributed among the three examined samples of dew- 

 laden grass, but even these by no means exhausted the list of living forms. 

 Two species of Rotifera, Rotifer vulgaris and Theorus venialis, numerous 

 AmccbcE, Anguilhila^, and various diatoms, chiefly motile Naviciilcs, contri- 

 buted their quota towards the host of active living organisms that were 

 found peopling more especially the lower and decaying regions of the dew- 

 moistened vegetation, the collection as a whole being undistinguishable 

 from the ordinary microscopic fauna of a roadside pond. 



The data elicited through the observations just recorded carry with 

 them an important and far-reaching significance. In addition to the 

 conclusive proof herewith afforded of the primary origin of germs in hay, 

 Infusoria and other minute forms of aquatic life were thereby demon- 

 strated to possess an area of active vital distribution hitherto undreamt 

 of. Water in its stable and concrete form is no longer, as hitherto 

 presumed, a requisite concomitant of such vital energy. The smooth- 

 shaven lawn, park-land, and meadow are each and all one vast teeming 

 city, peopled by its myriads of tiny inhabitants, heedlessly crushed 

 under foot in our daily walks abroad. Securely housed in their spore- 

 membranes or encystments, these microscopic beings slumber undisturbed 

 and unconsciously throughout the dry, dusty summer days, awaiting, how- 

 ever, only the fall of the evening dew, or passing shower, to cast off" the 

 frail cerements that enclose them, and to re-awake to active sentient life. 

 The mode or conditions of existence of the animalcules thus found so 

 plentifully on the dew-, or rain-moistened grass, are obvious. As already 

 stated, they are encountered most abundantly on the lowermost blades, 

 coloured brown or yellow, upon which the finger of decay has already set 

 its stamp. Here, in fact, is a plentiful banquet ever set in order for them. 



