26 THE ORIGIN OF CREATION. 



in a window, for several days, we find that germs have gained 

 admission to it, and animals innumerable, have been hatched 

 from " nothing." Although the can was air-proof, the heat of the 

 sun, acting on the meat and the water, or the vegetable and 

 mineral matter inside, formed a power which immediately 

 set the atoms moving. Like began to draw to like, germs as 

 they say were formed, magnetism set in, and in a few days, the 

 so-called can of dead animal or vegetable matter, was a mass ot 

 moving and living animals. 



Moreover, this preserved meat, if taken out of the can and 

 placed on ice, will keep for months, although exposed to the 

 atmosphere, thus showing conclusively, that germs are not 

 floating about in the air alone, but are formed from matter 

 under certain conditions of temperature fyc. 



It may be asked, why ice and salt preserve meat so well. 

 Merely because they are mineral substances ; and as we said 

 before, animals are only formed and supported, from an excess 

 of vegetable matter, kept at a certain high temperature. 



Professor Tyndall believes in the floating germ theory, and 

 in an article on " Dust and Disease " in Fraser's Magazine, he 

 shows the air of London to be so bad, that he recommends 

 every one to wear a woolen respirator over the mouth. This is 

 unnecessary, for the nose is so constructed that a germ would 

 have great difficulty in reaching the lungs by it. The only 

 precaution required is to keep the mouth shut. 



Another difficulty with the germ theory is, that while its 

 upholders believe it to develop into fungus, worms, and insects ; 

 they cannot understand how it develops into fishes. For 

 instance, the writer of an article on " Spontaneous Generation " 

 in Blackwood's Magazine (1861) says : There are numberless 



