400 PHYSIOLOGY OF THE INVERTEBRATA. 



of abiogenesis occurring in certain conditions, and it is un- 

 pliilosophical to assert the impossibility of its occurrence now 

 or in some past time. The intimate relations known to exist 

 between physical, chemical, and vital phenomena, depending 

 on the laws of the conservation and transmutation of energy, 

 and the theory of evolutional development, indicate the pro- 

 bability of abiogenesis, and it is one of the problems of 

 biological science to ascertain the conditions in which this 

 may occur." 



" In the domain of science any logical and necessary de- 

 duction or induction ought to be admitted, though it may 

 shock old ideas and shatter old dogmas. The same religious 

 and metaphysical prejudices, which have been so deeply dis- 

 quieted by the doctrine of evolution are still more alarmed 

 and annoyed by the idea of spontaneous generation. But 

 this may be changed as time rolls on, as has been the case 



with the Darwinian theory Not many years ago the 



majority of naturalists believed in the immutability of all 

 organised beings, and, as every epoch had its special fauna 

 and flora, it was necessary to recognise, as did the immortal 

 Cuvier, a series of successive creations. When God, irreve- 

 rently compared to the machinist of an opera, whistled once, 

 an implacable cataclysm annihilated all the living world ; 

 when He whistled a second time, but creatively, a new fauna 

 and a new flora rose to life. Thus had things to go on at 

 every geological epoch. From the trilobite to the mammoth 

 every species had thus to be formed by ' magical crystallisa- 

 tion.' Assuredly there was here spontancoufi generation of the 

 most astonishing kind, but it shocked no one, because it was 

 in more or less tacit accordance with metaphysical and 

 religious ideas." But all this is now changed, for the majority 

 of, if not all, naturalists firmly believe in the doctrine of 

 evolution, or the mutability of organised beings, as revealed by 

 the genius of Darwin. 



Although spontaneous generation is, at the present time, 

 " not proven," we mention the fact that it is still looked 



