io THE THEORY OF SPONTANEOUS GENERATION. 



sidered essential by the bacteriologist, but superfluous by those 

 who believe in spontaneous generation. Such development is, 

 however, due, not to the microsomes, but to the germs introduced 

 during the transfer. Although this is so evident, it is strange 

 that this view should have had its opponents, as, for instance, the 

 botanists H. Karsten and A. Wigand (I. and II.), and, with still 

 greater pertinacity, A. Bechamp. The last mentioned designates 

 these microsomes ("granulations moleculaires ") microzymes, and 

 attributes to them such tenacity of life that they are able to re- 

 main dormant, not only for years but even for entire geological 

 periods, since, as Bechamp asserts, he has found microzymes of 

 cells which were buried in the strata formed during the Cretaceous 

 period still retaining their vitality and reproductive power. A 

 full account of this microzyme theory, which many amateur 

 bacteriologists have considered to be indisputable communica- 

 tions respecting which have been incessantly intruded upon the 

 notice of the Academy of Science at Paris is given in a bulky 

 volume which BECHAMP (I.) laid before his sceptical contemporaries 

 in 1883. 



9. Spontaneous Generation only Unproven, not 

 Impossible. 



Omne vivum ex ovo (every living creature from an egg) ; omne 

 vivum ex vivo (every living creature from living creatures) was 

 the watchword elevated to a dogma by the triumphant opponents 

 of the theory of spontaneous generation. Were they correct ? or 

 did they encroach beyond the limits of the facts they demonstrated? 

 Let us devote a few moments to a critical review of the question. 



One thing is established beyond doubt, namely, that all the 

 instances of supposed spontaneous generation brought forward by 

 the adherents of the theory have been vitiated by numerous errors. 

 It is, moreover, established that the occurrence of spontaneous 

 generation has not been proved, no unassailable experiment being 

 known in which living creatures were produced from inanimate 

 substances. Spontaneous generation is therefore unproven. 



Whether it is also an impossibility is a point still to be de- 

 cided. If the theory of evolution, as presented by Lamarck and 

 Darwin, be traced towards its origin in the lowest organisms, we 

 come to a standstill with the question: "And from whence then 

 comes the ultimate and lowest creature? How did organic life 

 originate on our globe ? " 



The reply furnished by the English physicist Thomson l that 

 our earth was fertilised in its youth by meteors bringing the germs 

 of organisms from other heavenly bodies affords no solution, but 

 merely transfers the question to another scene and to a more 

 distant period of the past, and at once suggests the further ques- 

 1 Lord Kelvin. 



