FROM SIMPLE PERCEPTIBLE MATTER. 565 



4. Some species are the same in the most remote parts of the world. 



5. The geographical diffusion of infusoria on the eartli follows the 

 already known laws of other natural bodies. Southwards there are 

 more varying forms, supplying the place of those of other parts of the 

 globe, than westward and eastward, but they are nowhere wanting; 

 the influence of difference of climate is not confined to the larger kinds. 



6. The salt water of the lakes of the Siberian steppes does not ex- 

 hibit any peculiar infusorial forms varying in any remarkable manner. 



7. The water of the sea supports other and larger forms than the 

 river waters ; many however are identical ; in none of those known 

 does the magnitude exceed a line. 



8. In the atmospheric vapour which is precipitated as rain and dew, 

 I haA^e never been able to observe, and I believe no one else with cer- 

 tainty, living infusoria. (I have related some recent experiments of 

 mine on this subject.) 



9. In the deep subterranean places where atmospheric air, but 

 scarcely a minimum of reflected light, finds entrance, are found families 

 of the same infusoria as at the surface. 



10. Direct observations in support of the generatio primitiva have 

 all, as it now apjoears, been deficient in the requisite exactness. Those 

 same observers who supposed that they had seen the spontaneous ori- 

 gin of minute organized beings from primitive matters, have quite 

 overlooked the very complicated structure of these organisms. Here 

 a great error cannot be doubted, and the delusion is evident. This is 

 perhaps less to be ascribed to the fault of the observer's precipitancy 

 than to the weak powers of the instruments employed, or the want of 

 practice in their use. Observations on the origin of crustaceous animals 

 and insects from primitive substances are the echos of the olden time, 

 when caterpillars grew from the leaves. 



11. The idea that man was dependent, even if only in part, upon 

 the will of those infusoria of which he was composed, is proved to be 

 absurd, from the fact that the infusoria must seek their food, lay eggs, 

 and never combine into a fixed and growing state*. (Some it is true 

 unite at times into heaps, but these separate again into individuals.) 



12. The development of all those infusorial forms which I have been 

 able to observe is cyclical, quite certain, but at times abounding iu 

 varying forms, and from that cause delusive and demanding careful 

 observation. 



* This may appear an exaggeration, but we need only refer the reader to 

 Dr. Carus's paper om the Kingdoms of Nature, etc. in page 246 of the present 

 volume, where he says, 



" If we now reflect likewise how in the infusoria and Priestley's matter, 

 tlie rudiments of the animal kingdom appear as so many animated globuli, we 

 sliall thence perceive that the largest animal bodies themselves must be viewed 

 as an innumerable aggregate of infusoria, but at the same time united into a 

 living whole." W. F. 



2 q2 



