76 THE MICROSCOPE. 



states of one and the same ; for their multipli- 

 cation, by binary subdivision, being not a true 

 generative process, but merely (so to speak) 

 the growth of an individual, we may be almost 

 certain that sooner or later a new phase will 

 present itself, consisting in the evolution of 

 proper sexual bodies, which will perform a true 

 generative act, the products of which may be 

 very probably quite different from the forms 

 we are accustomed to regard as peculiar to 

 each species." l 



4. It is pleasing to find that the highest 

 authorities among naturalists (without a dis- 

 cordant voice) oppose the conclusions in favour 

 of the hypotheses of a generatio spontanea, or a 

 transmutatio speciei, which some have recently 

 attempted to draw from such phases of life and 

 reproduction as the preceding. 



5. " The hypothesis of equivocal generation," 

 says Professor Owen, " has been deemed to apply 

 more strongly to the appearance of internal 

 parasites (Entozoa) in animal bodies, than to 

 the origin of animalcules in infusions. But if a 



1 Carpenter on the Microscope, pp. 18, 20. 



