124> ON EQUIVOCAL GENERATION. 



this does not appear to be at all impossible ; and it is observation 

 of facts, and not conjecture, that must determine the question 

 of probability. 



" Some other fungi" he says p. 9. " as those growing in 

 " close wine vaults, or others which arise from decaying trees, 

 " or rotten timber, may perhaps be owing to a similar sponta- 

 " neous production, and not previously exist as perfect organic 

 " beings in the juices of the wood, as some have supposed. 

 " In the same manner it would seem that the common escu- 

 " lent mushroom is produced from horse dung at any time, 

 " and in any place, as is the common practice of many gar- 

 " deners." This requires no particular answer. Decaying 

 trees <xc. may afford a proper nidus for the seeds of vegetables 

 that are invisible to us; and that any of them previously exist 

 in the juices of the tree, was I believe, never supposed. The 

 horse dung also may afford a proper nidus for the seeds of the 

 mushroom. Besides these are only random observations, and 

 the facts have never been investigated in an accurate philoso- 

 phical manner. 



It is said by many, that the different kinds of worms which 

 are found in animal bodies have their origin there, and from 

 no worms of the same kinds, but from the unorganized mat- 

 ter of which our food consists. But according to later obser- 

 vations, most of these very worms have been found out of the 

 body, and therefore there is nothing improbable in the suppo- 

 sition of the seminal matter from which they came having 

 been conveyed into the body in the food, &c. and if some of 

 them have been found out of the body, the rest may in time 

 be found out of it also. It is, besides, unworthy of philoso- 

 phers to draw important conclusions from mere ignorance. 



Having recited these facts, and supposed facts, I shall con- 

 sider distinctly all that Dr. Darwin has advanced by way of 

 argument in defence of the system that he has espoused. 



He supposes, what no person will deny, that " dead orga- 

 " nic matter, or that which had contributed to the growth of 

 " vegetable and animal bodies, may by chemical attractions, 

 " in the organs of plants and animals, contribute to the nou- 

 " rishment of other plants and animals." But he adds, p. 6. 



