86 LIFE AND OEGANISATION. 



of animalcule life in various artificial compounds of organic 

 matter, under forms peculiar to each. The latter fact is as 

 incontestable as it is curious. But the conclusion from it 

 must ever be a doubtful one ; seeing what we know of the 

 wonderful retentiveness of reproductive power in the ova or 

 germs of such animalcules. We may readily conceive, and 

 we actually know, the continual presence of these invisible 

 elements of life in the earth, air, and water around us ; ready 

 to start into form the moment the physical conditions are 

 present which can give them their proper habitat and nutri- 

 ment. Many analogies in the vegetable world familiar to 

 naturalists favour this view ; and none, as far as we know, 

 contradict it. The argument for spontaneous generation 

 from the Entozoa is refuted by the fact that, with the excep- 

 tion of a few species which propagate by budding, they 

 have all male and female organs. The Polygastric Infu- 

 soria have been brought in to support the doctrine. But 

 in all the varieties of these animalcules there are fixed 

 and invariable forms ; and these, it may be added, closely 

 assimilating them to the fossil infusoria, which existed 

 ages ago. 



Thus far, then, the opinion rests on very slender authority. 

 We may add one argument, not usually quoted, yet as valid 

 as any of the foregoing ; viz., those new forms of epidemic 

 pestilence, which from time to time have appeared in the 

 world, devastating whole continents in their progress, and 

 depending, as we are disposed to believe, on organic and 

 living matters diffusing themselves as the virus of disease. 

 In no other way, as far as we can see, are these wandering 

 pestilences to be accounted for, than as derived from a mate- 

 Ties morbi 9 capable of reproducing itself, and therefore 

 coming strictly under the character of life. But here again, 

 while admitting this view, we cannot affirm that the germs 

 may not have existed for ages before, awaiting develope- 



