EXPERIMENTAL MICROSCOPY—SOMMERS, 85 
organisms, heterogenists had then to recede a step,—new or- 
ganisms were needed to uphold the theory. Bacterize came to 
the front. 
The theory of spontaneous generation may perhaps be resolved 
by the question: Do living organisms come from, 1,—a spontan- 
cous aggregation of particles, living or inorganic? 2.—Are they 
the result of the development of ova? Spontaneous action is 
defined to be that arising from natural disposition, tendency or 
inclination, or without external cause, that is, no cause can be 
assigned for its production—a confession of ignorance. 
All that is positively known of the reproduction: of living 
beings points to sexual generation as the means by which 
nature attains that object, even accepting certain variations 
of the process. If we reason from the supposition that living 
beings are formed by the fortuitous aggregation of particles, 
organic or inorganic, we assume a fact of which we have no 
example in nature by analogy, and one which we are incapable 
of demonstrating. We assume likewise that such ageregation 
er combination of molecules is capable of producing beings of a 
definite and wniferm character, for which we have no basis. 
If we on the other hand suppose the production of the lowest 
orders of beings to be ewing to the development of germs vr 
ova, separated from living beings of their own kind, finding 
suitable conditions, we rest upon a basis which is analagous to 
what occurs in all cases where the process of reproduction can 
be seen and followed, confessing mercly our inability as yet to 
demonstrate the process by which it is brought about. 
The conclusion we arrive at from the foregoing is that living 
organisms reproduce beings like themselves, through successive 
generations, and life passes down the pathway of time always 
reproducing itself; that the mind of man, also a product of 
living matter, like that matter, is constantly reproducing itself, 
and often, when supposing it has arrived at the termination of a 
linear course, finds that it has only travelledinacircle. It seems 
to me that the only true philosophic view to take of the ques- 
tion is to assume that there is in nature no such thing as a spon- 
taneous generation, admitting, however, the exact mode of pro- 
duction ef the lowest forms is not at the present time understood. 
+ 
