ORIGIN OF ANIMAL LIFE. 25 



Life we are told is originated by living invisible germs. 

 Wlint is the difference between a germ ;md an atom 1 ? We do 

 not sec that there is any difference, but many scientific men 

 seem to say there is. 



We explain what atoms are, where they come from, and how 

 they cause life ; but where do these germs come from 1 They 

 must have been bom in some way. Pasteur does not know, and 

 the only man of science who advances an opinion regarding 

 their origin, is Lamarck. He says that the germs or rudiments 

 of life, which he calls monads, are continually coming into the 

 world, and that there are ditterent kinds of monads, for each 

 primary division of the animal and vegetable world. 



" This hypothesis," as Sir Charles Lyell correctly says, " i.s 

 wholly unsupported by any modern experiments or observa- 

 tions, and affords us no aid whatever, in speculating on the 

 commencement of vital phenomena on the earth." 



Lamarck's theory, to be of any service, ought to have ex- 

 plained where the monads came from. 



If invisible atoms, and invisible germs are not the same, 

 then the germs must be formed from atoms, by the law of 

 atomagnetism ; that law or cause of life, which men have been 

 seeking for so long, and could not find. We can prove that 

 germs are not exclusively in the air, and that atomagnetism 

 causes germs if such things do exist for Pasteur says, in 

 speaking of the length of time during which preserved meats 

 and vegetables may be kept in cans : " this result is solely 

 obtained by tho exclusion of the germs of corruption and 

 decay, which prey upon all perishable substances, with more or 

 less rapidity." 



But if we expose one of these cans to the heat of the sun, 



