NON-LIVING INTO THE LIVING. 67 



matter; but it must be admitted, that the hiatus between 

 such an opinion and the belief that it is a fact is very con- 

 siderable and not to be bridged over by an ordinary mind. 

 However, some very distinguished scientific men have 

 brought themselves not only to believe that living things do 

 come direct from non-living matter, and that the change is 

 continually occurring (see page 64), but assert that the 

 recent evidence advanced in favour of this strange and 

 antiquated doctrine is reliable, and convincing to the reason. 

 I confess I am utterly unable to agree in this view, and I 

 cannot even imagine how such a state of mind is acquired. 

 I can no more bring myself to believe in the possibility 

 even of a bacterium or a microscopic fungus being formed 

 from a solution of an ammoniacal salt, than that a crocodile 

 might be produced direct from a lump of Nile mud. It 

 seems to me that before one can bring one's mind into a 

 state fit to appreciate the discussion of such a question, one 

 must not only unlearn all that one has ever been taught 

 concerning physics and chemistry, but one must feel con- 

 vinced that numerous observations made when one was 

 young and beginning to learn how to observe, which were 

 afterwards proved to one's entire satisfaction to be fallacies, 

 were really correct and true. For example, that when in a 

 drop of stale milk under the microscope I saw a fungus appa- 

 rently connected with an oil globule, and after prolonged 

 enquiry, came to the conclusion that the fungus grew from 

 a germ underneath or lying upon some part of the oil glo- 

 bule, I was wrong the truth being, that the oil globule 

 really gave origin to the fungus, and that the latter grew 

 from it a conclusion drawn by the imperfectly trained 

 mind during the first few seconds of careless looking at the 



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