28 , THE MYSTERY OF LIFE. 



while the man-germ, or the dog-germ, could 

 not be so formed ; or that the white blood cor- 

 puscles, or the epithelial cells of man, grow and 

 multiply and live like the lower, simpler or- 

 ganisms, while the cells of man's brain grow, 

 and live, and act in some totally different 

 manner. The proof of the working of a general 

 law at one end of the scale of living beings, 

 will soon be followed by a conviction of its 

 application to phenomena occurring at the other. 

 But the conclusion referred to would be directly 

 at variance with the actual results of observa- 

 tion and experiment, opposed to the facts known 

 in connection with development, and in the 

 highest degree improbable. Confusion, not 

 order, would in that case dominate in nature. 

 Yet I will, nevertheless, freely admit that it is 

 possible that the same living thing might be 

 generated in two very different ways, but the 

 facts at present known render it almost certain 

 that no evidence will be obtained in favour ot 

 such an inference, and that as investigation ad- 

 vances the correctness of such a notion will be 

 shown to be so very improbable that the idea 

 will be abandoned. 



The arguments which have been advanced in 



