COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



carbonate of ammonia, in which the elements 

 essential to the formation of protoplasm are 

 present. Yet in such menstrua as these he be- 

 lieves that he has found even fungus-spores 

 " spontaneously " generated. 



The contrast here vividly brought before us 

 draws attention to what would seem to be one 

 of the weakest points in Dr. Bastian's theory. 

 It is a long way from tartrate of ammonia and 

 phosphate of soda to the spores of a fungus. 

 It seems too long a way to be traversed in a 

 few days or weeks amid merely the simple 

 conditions which exist within a closed flask. 

 A fungus-spore is not mere shapeless proto- 

 plasm. In it, as in the bacterium and the 

 vibrio, there is a visible specialization of struc- 

 ture, albeit a slight specialization. These infu- 

 soria are " lowest organisms," no doubt ; still 

 they are really organisms and not merely masses 

 of organic matter. They have forms which are 

 more or less persistent ; and in this fact is to 

 be seen the strongest of the objections which 

 may be urged a priori against Dr. Bastian's 

 views. For organic form is a circumstance into 

 which heredity largely enters ; and where we 

 find organisms even so simple as the jointed 

 rods which are called vibrios, it is difficult, on 

 theoretical grounds, not to accredit them with 

 a regular organic parentage. Such considera- 

 tions cannot weigh against a crucial experi- 



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