136 VITALISM AND SCHOLASTICISM 



ments reviewed in the pages immediately 

 preceding it may be remarked : 



1. It is quite certain that no person has ever 

 seen living matter produced from not-living 

 matter now or at any previous time. 



2. It is equally certain that we have no facts 

 on which to base the theory that it was 

 spontaneously produced at some former period. 



3. Nor have we the slightest suggestion from 

 those who put forward the theory as to how 

 the transformation may have taken place or 

 under what conditions, nor are we told why 

 it is impossible to reproduce those conditions 

 in the chemist's laboratory. We are treated 

 to a good many nebulous phrases, like Spencer's 

 truly delightful and luminous explanation of 

 " successive complications," but of solid bed- 

 rock fact we get nothing whatsoever. 



4. Finally, that as science deals and can only 

 deal with ascertained facts, theories of this 

 kind must be taken for what they are, namely, 

 " pious opinions," and estimated at the value 

 which they therefore possess. 



Weismann Weismann, the distinguished biologist, de- 

 clares,* " that spontaneous generation, in spite 

 of all vain efforts to demonstrate it, remains 

 for me a logical necessity." 



Why a logical necessity? Is it because the 

 * Essay a, Poulton's Trans., p. 34. 



