

———s&#FINAL DECISIVE EXPERIMENTS 283 
of ‘spontaneous generation,’ is opposed to the 
- universal experience of mankind. It shows that 
what is supposed to contradict this common experi- 
ence lies altogether outside, and, of necessity, 
completely beyond the range of ordinary human 
experience. Nobody with unaided eyes could ever 
have witnessed the birth from fluids of invisible 
particles, by which ‘spontaneous generation’ of 
living matter must always commence, if it commences 
at all. And, even when aided by the most powerful 
microscope, nobody could decide when the mzxzmum 
viszble particles appear in the field of view, that such 
particles have proceeded from invisible germs of pre- 
existing organisms, rather than from a_ primordial 
synthesis of living units. But in regard to this 
latter point, I have already shown that absolutely 
no logical or consistent reason exists for a disbelief 
in the present occurrence of Archebiosis.” There is, 
it was stated, ‘“‘no vestige of evidence to show that 
under favourable conditions the process may not be 
continually taking place all around us.” 
But what is assumed to be continually taking place 
in free nature—in ponds, lakes, rivers, the sea, and in 
innumerable other sites—must be regarded as a 
process far more easily brought about than can ever 
be possible under the very restrictive conditions 
which can alone exist in our experimental vessels, 
where we have to do with small quantities of fluid, 
more or less degraded by a preliminary heating, 
and enclosed within small glass vessels. Yet, as | 
have endeavoured to show in this work, by all the 
evidence recorded in Chapters x.-xil. concerning 
