526 SPONTANEOUS GENERATION OF 



would appear from the fact, that no others are 

 capable of entering into ternary and quaternary 

 compositions ; in short, that no plant or animal 

 was ever formed or nourished by any other 

 elements. And that the tendency of dead or- 

 ganized bodies to undergo decomposition, is 

 owing to the same active principle that enables 

 these elements to form ternary and quaternary 

 combinations, is proved by the circumstance 

 that this tendency is augmented by every addi- 

 tion of caloric, which I have shewn to be not 

 only the universal bond, but the great decomposer 

 of all matter. 



During the decomposition of organized bodies 

 under the influence of a summer temperature, 

 a portion of their substance enters into binary 

 compounds of water, carbonic acid, and am- 

 monia. But during this process, another portion 

 of the same elements unites to form the simplest 

 species of microscopic plants and animalcules, 

 without the concurrence of parents, seeds, eggs, 

 or the addition of any other principle than was 

 concerned in the generation of water, carbonic 

 acid, &c. And as it has been shewn that the 

 form of crystals depends on the nature of their 

 atoms, modified by the temperature at which 

 they are aggregated, so has it been observed that 

 the specific character of infusoria, generated 

 during the fermentation of albumin, fibrin, starch, 

 gluten, and other organic compounds, varies ac- 



