CHAPTER IV. 



SPONTANEOUS GENERATION AND SCIENTIFIC DIS- 

 COVERY. 



Early Views Regarding Abiogenesis. 



BEFORE recounting the results of .these investi- 

 gations, it may not, perhaps, be out of place, 

 briefly to summarize a chapter in the history of biol- 

 ogy which has always had a peculiar interest for 

 students of nature, and which, even to-day, notwith- 

 standing many long and animated controversies on 

 the subject, has probably a greater interest for a 

 certain school of evolutionists than almost any other 

 one topic. I refer to the subject of spontaneous 

 generation, or abiogenesis, 1 to which reference has 

 already been made en passant. 



The discussion of this question has played such 

 an important part in the history of science, that any 

 treatment of the theory of Evolution which should 

 contain no reference to the subject of spontaneous 

 generation, would ignore one of the most essential 

 factors in a great and long-continued controversy. 

 In good sooth, some knowledge of the more salient 

 facts of abiogenesis are absolutely indispensable to a 

 proper appreciation of certain of the most interest- 

 ing problems connected with the theory of Evolution 



1 Generatio sequivoca, heterogenesis, and autogenesis, are 

 sometimes employed as synonyms of spontaneous generation. 



(41) 



