ona, Nov iso. | Lapers on Spontaneous Generation. 273 
of Chlorococcus, and as such may be expected to fulfil the apparent 
law of Harvey— 
“Omne vivum ab ovo.” 
There is much evidence for this great law of reproduction, which, 
commencing in parthenogenesis, passes the successive homologues to 
the highest condition of copulative generation, with its instincts and 
powers in a continuous chain. 
The theory suggested by Dr. Bastian would appear to be 
“Non omne vivum ab ovo 
Sed aliquod vivum de noyo ;” 
and, as shown in p. 223, the successive stages after the birth 
de novo are conducted on the “ab ovo” principle. We must there- 
fore conclude that if an occasional (for the succession ab ovo cannot 
be entirely denied) birth de novo takes place, the law “ab ovo” is 
substituted by a fortuitous concurrence of amorphous colloid 
molecules. Whereas, if we think with Buffon that each primordial 
cell is an individual vesicular blastoderm, the primordial Monad 
may as easily proceed by a continuous succession “ab ovo,” as from 
a colloid arising spontaneously de novo from crystalline matter. 
A simple answer seems to arise to the proposal of Dr. Bastian, 
in the note to p. 221, that the specks are mere indifferent matter 
having no inherent tendencies, viz. that they have inherent ten- 
dencies varying with the stage of progress at which they arrive upon 
their sphere of independent existence, as mere specks, as zoospores 
from Mucedine, from Conferve, as Monads, Bacteria, Vibrions, 
Euglenz, Amcebee, or Pseudo-gonidia. 
Concerning the spores developed after the thunderstorm referred 
to p. 222, the ozone produced by the electric discharge will 
account for speedy growth, which does not take place in ordinary 
air (see Exp. with ozonized air, M. M. J., Aug., 1869, p. 100, 
line 5 eé¢ seq.). 
In p. 171 Dr. Bastian says, “'The minutest specks of living 
matter appear in previously homogeneous solutions.” Will not the 
so-called homogeneous solutions, if resolved, like the nebulz of 
the astronomer, eventually prove to be an aggregate of Monad 
forms? On the 4th of August, 1870, I observed some Paramcecia 
swimming freely in a homogeneous fluid, which with reflected light 
proved to be one mass of Vibrions. 
Considerable difficulty arises as to the agents required to devive 
organic germs or colloid molecules zn esse. Dr. Hughes Bennett 
says, “ Neither calcined air, sulphuric acid, liquor potasse, gun- 
“ cotton, nor a boiling temperature have prevented the production of 
“ infusoria, or destroyed the supposed germs in the air or infusion.” 
I have seen (Aug. Ist, 1870) Vibrions active after sufficient strong 
u 2 
