WHAT IT IS AND WHAT IT IS NOT. >j l 



neous generation. There is no necessary connection 

 between the one theory and the other. Spontaneous 

 generation, or birth without parentage, on the part of 



small or useless creatures was accepted 

 Spontaneous in e , timeg without quest ion. As men 

 generation. * 



began to observe these animals more 



carefully, the fact of their spontaneous generation was 

 doubted. A great step was made when it was found 

 that to screen meat from flies would protect it from 

 maggots. A greater step came in our own time when it 

 was proved that to screen infusions from air dust is to 

 protect them from putrefaction or fermentation. Fer- 

 mentation is " life without air." It is the decomposition 

 of sugar by minute creatures who disintegrate it in their 

 life processes. Putrefaction and decay are also the 

 same in nature. There is literal truth in Carlyle's state- 

 ment that there is still force in a fallen leaf, " else how 

 could it rot? " It is the force of the minute organisms 

 hidden in the leaf, and whose life is the leaf's decay. 

 The decay and death of men from contagious diseases 

 are known to be due to life processes of minute organ- 

 isms, as is the gangrene which follows unskilful sur- 

 gery. The study of the " fauna and flora " within living 

 organisms has now become a science of itself, demand- 

 ing the greatest care in observation and the most com- 

 plete of appliances. " Omne vivum ex vivo" " all life from 

 life," was an aphorism of the naturalists of a century or 

 two ago. It was to them a new and broad generali- 

 zation. It has not yet been set aside. The classic ex- 

 periments of Tyndall show that this law applies to all 

 creatures we have yet recognised or classified. As far 

 as science can tell, spontaneous generation is still a 

 myth, having no basis in observation, no warrant in ex- 

 periment. It remains as a pure deduction from the phi- 

 losophical conception of Monism. It is incapable of 



