106 THE OCEAN WORLD. 



/ 



to see this matter organize itself, and form itself into living infusorial 

 animals. 



Such is the general enumeration of the question of spontaneous or 

 heterogeneous generation, on which so much has heen written in the 

 last ten years. The great expounders of the doctrine have heen the 

 two French naturalists, MM. Pouchet and Joly. Their views have, 

 however, made little progress ; they have, on the contrary, met with 

 vigorous opposition from the generality of French naturalists, and 

 from most of the memhers of the Academie des Sciences of Paris, who 

 have raised their voices against a doctrine which is contrary to the 

 ordinary course of nature. In short, the direct observations made 

 upon the theory of " primitive generation " are as yet wanting in 

 necessary exactness ; those observers who profess to have witnessed 

 the sudden origin of the minutest of the infusoria from elementary 

 substances have in all probability overlooked the organic structure of 

 these elementary bodies. The wonderful changes of form undergone 

 by many infusoria have their limits, and the laws governing them 

 have still to be defined. With the poet we may say : 



" Grammatici certant et adhuc sub judice lis est." 



Many of the Infusoria are subject to metamorphoses, and it has 

 already been ascertained that certain species which have been con- 

 sidered as distinct are only transition forms of the same species 

 depending on age. 



We know that it is common for insects to enclose themselves in 

 protecting envelopes, and to remain for whole months shut up in this 

 their retreat, to all appearance dead. Similar facts have been observed 

 in the Infusoria. We have even seen some of these beings surrounding 

 strange bodies as if in a mass of jelly, forming a sort of living envelope 

 around them. 



The average duration of life with them is only a few hours ; but 

 certain species present, in relation to the duration of life, phenomena 

 which are only imperfectly known, but which never fail to excite the 

 surprise and admiration of the naturalist. By drying certain infusoria 

 with care, it is possible to suspend and indefinitely prolong its life. 

 Thus dried, and covered with a powder, which shelters it from every 

 breath of wind, it may be carried to any given distance, through any 

 indefinite period of time abandoned on some ledge of rock, on a 



