64 DEATH AND RESURRECTION. 



investigate. These cases are exceed- 

 ingly numerous because on the disbe- 

 lief in generatio spontanea rests a whole 

 modern industry, the art of preserving, 

 which in millions of cases dailv verifies 

 the hypothesis. But our experience, in 

 spite of this, does not reach far. If we 

 continue our observations, who can 

 guarantee that we would not finally 

 discover that Biichner, after all, was 

 right, and one single case would suffice. 

 The utmost we can attain by observa- 

 tion is a certain degree of probability, 

 and if we undertook to prove Harvey's 

 hypothesis to be a law in this way, our 

 experiments must be extended in in- 

 finifiim. 



In order to reach certainty only 

 under present conditions, we must 

 study the generation of every now liv- 

 ing organism, animals, plants, bacteria 

 and the like. If it were found then 

 that all these beings have had parents 

 it would still be impossible to draw 

 absolutely sure conclusions in regard 

 to previous generations. We should be 



