1864. | Samvurnson on the Source of Living Organisms. 613 
alow, are seen four amcebe, and two of the fusiform ciliated 
*“monads” (Cercomonas fusiformis); a group of free floating cells, 
some of which are subdividing, may be observed below ; zoospores, or 
the young of ciliated infusoria, and “ vibriones,” make up the living 
contents, whilst a couple of fragments of hard, transparent mineral, 
probably silex, held together by some softer mineral substance, 
complete the little group of objects, all of which are magnified 270 
diameters. 
In Fig. 2 we have one of the larger plant-cells, a little sharp 
fragment of silex, amcebze of various types (one very active kind 
undergoing subdivision), the fusiform “monad,” and two young 
ciliated infusoria, all represented as they appear under a lens 
magnifying 900 diameters. 
But it may be said by the partisans of “spontaneous generation,” 
that the presence of germs in the atmosphere is no absolute disproof 
of their theory, and they may still maintain that it is possible for 
inorganic elements or organic compounds so to combine “ spontane- 
ously,” as to form infinitely minute germs or cells, which are 
invisible under the highest powers of the microscope. 
For the possibility of such a combination, by artificial means, 
they might appeal to the opinion expressed by at least one high 
biological authority, Professor Huxley, who says (as it was already 
stated in the Introduction to this Journal), that he believes it possible, 
before half a century has elapsed, that man may be able to take 
inorganic substances, such as carbonic acid, ammonia, water, and 
salines, ‘and be able to build them up into protein matter,’ and that 
that protein matter should “ begin to live in an organic form ;”* and, 
for the reasons assigned at the commencement of this paper, it appears 
to me also that they have the indirect countenance of all thorough 
believers in progressive development through secondary causes. 
Nor would I for a moment venture to deny the possibility of such 
a phenomenon; for, however contrary it may be to analogy and 
experience, it is impossible to say whether or not the same natural 
laws operate in the creation of these still invisible forms as in that of 
the visible organized types. 
As Dr. Child has said, some of these forms are no more entitled 
to be considered independent organisms than white blood-corpuscles, 
&c.; and I think he might with safety have added, after the publica- 
tion of Dr. Beale’s researches on blood-corpuscles, that some of them 
are much less deserving of the rank of living organisms. It would 
be presumptuous, then, to deny that such lowly forms may not be 
created to-day, either artificially or spontaneously, 
But that is not the ground hitherto taken by the advocates of 
“spontaneous generation.” They deny the existence of the germs of 
infusoria in the atmosphere, and would have the scientific world 
accept their theory as sufficient to account for the presence of all the 
* «Lectures to Working Men.’ Professor Huxley is, however, a disbeliever in 
heterogenesis, and considers that through Pasteur’s experiments the doctrine has 
“received a final cowp de grace.” 
