110 THE SEVEN FOLLIES OF SCIENCE 



ox, and, after a time, left to themselves in some stream 

 where they throve and grew large. 



Now, although Evelyn, in his diary, declares that " Sir 

 Kenelm was an errant mountebank," it is quite possible that 

 he was honest in his account of his experiments and that he 

 was merely led astray by the imperfection of his instru- 

 ments of observation. It is more than likely that the 

 creatures which Digby saw were entomostraca introduced 

 in the form of ova which, unless a good microscope be used, 

 are quite invisible. These would develop rapidly and might 

 easily be mistaken for some species of crab, though, when 

 examined with proper instruments, all resemblance vanishes. 

 When let loose in a running stream it would evidently be 

 impossible to trace their identity and follow their growth. 



But while some of these stories may have originated in 

 errors of observation this will hardly explain some of the 

 statements made by those who have advocated this strange 

 doctrine. Father Schott, in his "Physica Curiosa," gives 

 an account of the resurrection of a sparrow and actually 

 gives an engraving in which the bird is shown in a bottle 

 revived ! 



Although the subject, of itself, is not worthy of a mo- 

 ment's consideration, it deserves attention as an illustration 

 of the extraordinary vagaries into which the human mind 

 is liable to fall. 



