158 Tlie Fungoid Origin of Disease, 



and interesting fact, one very suggestive as to the cause of particular 

 forms of disease, and seeming to lead to the conclusion that contagious 

 affections are produced by a putrefactive change, a contamination 

 introduced from without into the circulation. 



From whatever stand-point we view the important question of 

 contagion, or the origin of hfe, I am quite sure it will ultimately 

 end in a gain to our scientific knowledge ; and as every additional 

 contribution will I am sure be acceptable, I shall offer no apology 

 for introducing a very interesting letter, written by Henry J. 

 Carter, F.E.S., some four or five years ago, as a criticism on a paper 

 of mine wliich appeared in the ' Intellectual Observer,' " On Phases 

 in the Developmental History of Infusorial Life," a great portion 

 of which is quite pertinent to the question under review at this 

 moment. 



BuDLEiGH Saltebton, DEVONSHIRE, March l-ith, 1SG7. 



My deab Sik, — I do not yet believe in spontaneous generation, 

 nor will the theory, if ever substantiated, be so until a knowledge of 

 the ultimate forms of the phenomena called " life " is obtained ; while 

 it seems to me that we are as far from this as from the ultimate atoms 

 of matter. 



When we see, under the microscope, insect forms almost as small as 

 the smallest animalcules, and know, from inference, how complicated 

 their structure must be ; when we find their limbs as transparent as 

 glass, and thus, apj^arently, as structureless, yet know that there is 

 structure even in glass. 



When we find that there is no extent to the slowness of change of 

 form and movement in organized matter, that with the highest magni- 

 fying power possessed we can limit ; that even unmelted iron is said to 

 flow : when, on the other hand, the power of determining the velocity 

 of bodies diminishes with the magnifying power, so that distance and 

 magnitude itself are required to make us sensible of the rate at which 

 comets travel, even if not of the presence of the atoms of matter en 

 masse which form their nebulosities, so that neither one nor the other 

 could be seen if close to us, any more than electricity or uncondensed 

 steam. 



When, I repeat, our perceptions in these respects remain so finite, 

 how can anyone come forward with the assertion that there is such a 

 thing as " spontaneous generation," based upon the presence of ani- 

 malcules which, produced under any chcumstances, may be, and pro- 

 bably are, far more complicated in theii* structure, and therefore higher 

 in the scale of organic development, than a host of living beings with 

 whose forms even we have as yet no means of becoming cognizant ? 



Progressive knowledge may lead the human mind to the beginning 

 of vitality, to the quickening power of matter and its processes, but 

 imtil this is reached, it seems to me premature to assume as a fact 

 that there is such a powei* as spontaneous generation. 



With reference to the next point in yom* paper, the transformation 

 of the protoplasm of the vegetable cell into amoeboid forms, who shall 



