46 THE SCIENCE OF LIFE. 



10. Evolutionists find it difficult, if not impossible, to 

 account for the first origin of living matter. The bold- 

 est and most logical among them maintain that it began 

 spontaneously out of non-living matter. Some, like Sir 

 W. Thompson, suppose that the germs of living things 

 were transported to our globe from some other. Others, 

 as Darwin, hold to the creation of a single germ, or a 

 few germs, from which all have developed. The doc- 

 trine of the spiritual origin of living things is beset with 

 no such difficulties as the mechanical theory. While it 

 admits a unity of plan resulting from the superintending 

 intelligence of an all-wise Creator, it sees in living things 

 a true diversity also. It is hard to imagine how a nat- 

 uralist can think of " differentiation " without acknowl* 

 edging a cause of variety ab extra, (from without.) 



11. The evidence adduced in favor of spontaneous 

 generation is always of one kind. A quantity of animal 

 or vegetable infusion is boiled in a flask, which is then 

 hermetically sealed. After a time minute forms of life 

 are found on a microscopic examination of the fluid. It 

 is taken for granted that all living germs are destroyed 

 by boiling water, and that therefore the organisms seen 

 after a few days are developed spontaneously. But 

 Messrs. Dollinger and Drysdale have shown that some 

 germs remain alive after exposure to a temperature of 

 300 F., and Pasteur has found that stopping the necks 

 of the flasks with cotton wool, so as to filter the air 

 from all germs, prevents the appearance of Infusoria, as 

 well as of decay, in fluids well adapted to such organ- 

 isms. Professor Tyndall has also experimented with a 

 great variety of fluids in air so deprived of floating germs 



