DIRECT LIFE-FORM A TION. 6 1 



seen only more minute living particles growing and 

 dividing and giving rise to particles like themselves. 



Are we to believe, then, on the mere dictum of 

 authority, that living germs are formed in two ways 

 upon two distinct principles ? i. By being detached 

 from parent living matter ; and 2. By the direct com- 

 bination of lifeless particles without the intervention 

 of any pre-existing living matter at all ? 



It must be freely conceded that many facts are sus- 

 ceptible of more than one interpretation, and may be 

 regarded as being of different import by different 

 minds. Nay, in some instances, the very same facts 

 have been appealed to, and not in any way unfairly, 

 in support of opposite and conflicting doctrines. With 

 reference to the question of spontaneous generation, I 

 must, however, venture to remark, that to my mind 

 the case of those who at this time hold to the doc- 

 trine of the direct origin of living beings from non- 

 living matter appears so hopelessly opposed to facts, 

 that I should as soon think of believing in the direct 

 formation from lifeless matter of an oak, a butterfly, 

 a mouse, nay, man himself, as in that of an amoeba or 

 a bacterium. 



After so many failures to force people to believe 

 that the phenomena peculiar to living beings are to 

 be explained by physics alone, it was natural to 

 expect that the language employed by those who 

 still entertain such doctrines would have become 

 more guarded, if not more exact. But, on the con- 



