19G Development of Moyias Lens. [joSmLl a prutTia' 



Doubtless to his great and well earned fame we shall owe many 

 facts and opinions which will now be given to the world, but have 

 hitherto (hke the researches of the alchemists) been confined to 

 the darkness of scientific studios, and transcribed in the cabalistic 

 abracadabra of such investigations. 



But now that the subject is no longer ca\^are to the multitude, 

 it becomes the duty of all who are interested to throw the glimmer 

 of their lanterns (however small) upon the thief that is suspected of 

 such deadly intents and pm-jioses. 



The object of the present remarks is to draw attention to Monas 

 Lens and its kindred organisms, as a moans of Nature's scavenging ; 

 but to review the subjects in the order in which they have been put, 

 a few words must first be du-ected to Speciology. 



The observations of Sir Charles Lyell,* Professor Phdhps,! 

 Dr. J. B. Hicks, + ]Mr. Browning, § and other writers, may l^e quoted 

 in support of the opinion that " species is merely an abstraction of 

 the human intellect," " not a real boundary set by nature ;" and 

 that " fi'om one cell " many developments " can and do arise," and 

 the facts recorded in the " Jottings " give additional colom* to this 

 opinion. 



The transmutabihty of one form to another is important to a 

 subsecjuent consideration of the "Germ" theory of disease; indeed 

 to support the proposition that monads (from various sources) will 

 develop results varying as the '' accidents " of their life, the pre- 

 vious opinion that species is an isolated collection of organisms within 

 a definite boundary, must give way to that more extended view which 

 arises irom tracing the convergent lines of evidence to their necessary 

 point of incidence.! 



In order to trace the " Germ " to its existence in the air, its 

 source must be examined, and if it is found to arise from plants 

 and (passing through stages varying with surrounding conditions) 

 to be capable of development to forms hitherto considered distinct, 

 the resultant forms (from still more widely differing conditions of 

 pabulum, &c.) will again exhibit variety ; and that if water gives 

 one result, air a second, ozone a third, mucilage a fourth, and so on, 

 then the effect of living mucous membrane must of necessity be 

 diverse from all. Always bearing in mind the balancing effect of 

 " heredity " and " recurrence." 



But now, to address the remarks more especially to Epide- 

 miology and Nature's scavenging.^ l*rofessor Tyndall has referred 

 to the researches of Pasteur and others, and it may be added that 



* ' Antiquity of Man,' p. 389. 

 f ' Life: its Origin and Succession,' p. 199. 

 X ' Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science.' 

 § ' ^Monthly Microscopical Journal,' Julj% 1869. 

 II See " Higher and Lower Animals : " ' Quarterly Review.' 

 t W. A. H. Hassall, Introd., p. 42. 



