APPENDIX B. xxi 



changed (without having undergone any growth or develop- 

 ment) on the solution of the crystal *. Whilst, on the other 

 hand, in the case of the recent crystals, it may have happened 

 that no such filaments or spores were floating in the atmo- 

 sphere, or were present in the water, at the time of their 

 formation, so that none could have dropped into the solu- 

 tions, or could have been enclosed within the crystals. 



This is, I think, unlikely to be the real explanation of the 

 difference between the two sets of crystals, and my reasons 

 for this opinion will appear more fully during the discussion 

 of the alternative supposition. 



(2). It may be supposed, on the other hand, that the 

 confervoid-looking filaments and the spores are living units 

 which have assumed their existing forms and dimensions by 

 a process of growth and development within the crystal, and 

 that the starting-point of each was a mere speck of living matter. 



By adopting this supposition, the panspermatists derive 

 the full benefit of our microscopical' researches, and thus 

 narrow their real requirements in the matter of pre-exist- 

 ing spores. It becomes a much simpler case for them, if 

 instead of being compelled to calculate upon the pre-exist- 

 ence of fully formed fungus-spores, and of confervoid-look- 

 ing filaments, they need only presume upon the pre-existence 

 of a mere speck of living matter less than -r^nr" in. diameter. 

 I most candidly confess, however, that the pre-existence of 

 such specks of living matter is all that is really necessary 2 . 



1 If they had been engaged within the crystals of tartaric acid, they 

 must have been liberated from them during the preparation of the 

 neutral tartrate, only to be re-entangled whilst the crystals of this salt 

 were forming. 



2 Although this supposition is so far favourable to the views of the 

 panspermatists, since it makes their real requirements much more simple, 

 they will find it a most troublesome and unpliant supposition, unless 

 they are disposed at the same time to become out-and-out developmen- 

 talists. Their position would, doubtless, be a much more easy one than 

 it is at present, if they chose to maintain that such specks of living 



