THEORIES AS TO THE ORIGIN OP LIFE. 77 



tapeiuorm might be organized from a fortuitous 

 concourse of organic particles, or by the meta- 

 morphosis of an organic cell in the animal it 

 infests, why that immense complication and ex- 

 tent of the organs for the production of normal 

 fertile ova P" 1 



6. " The universality," says Professor Car- 

 penter, " of simple forms of fungi upon all 

 spots favourable to their development, has given 

 rise to the belief that they are spontaneously 

 produced by decaying vegetables ; but there is 

 no occasion for this mode of accounting for it, 

 since the extraordinary means adopted by Na- 

 ture for the production and diffusion of the 

 genus of these plants adequately suffices to ex- 

 plain the facts of the case." " A single indivi- 

 dual of the puff-ball tribe has been computed 

 to send forth no fewer than ten millions of 

 sporules. Their minuteness is such, that it is 

 difficult to conceive of a place from which they 

 should be excluded. This mode of explanation 

 has received further confirmation from the facts 

 recently ascertained in regard to the great num- 



1 Owen's Comp. Anat. vol. i. p. 54. The ova in one indi- 

 vidual of the Entozoa amount to sixty -four millions. 



