ALLEGED SPONTANEOUS GENERATION, ETC. G97 



Two volumes are missing^. The closing chapter of the second^wcre 

 it written, would deal with the evolution of organic matter — the 

 step preceding the evolution of living forms. Habitually carr}'ing 

 with me in thought the contents of this unwritten chapter, I have, 

 in some cases, expressed myself as though the reader had it before 

 him; and have thus rendered some of my statements liable to mis- 

 constructions. Apart from this, however, the explanation of the ap- 

 parent inconsistency is very simple, if not very obvious. In the first 

 place, I do not believe in the " spontaneous generation " commonly 

 alleged, and referred to in the note ; and so little have I associated 

 in thought this alleged " spontaneous generation " which I disbe- 

 lieve, with the generation by evolution which I do believe, that the 

 repudiation of the one never occurred to me as liable to be taken for 

 repudiation of the other. That creatures having quite specific struc- 

 tures are evolved in the course of a few hours, without antecedents 

 calculated to determine their specific forms, is to me incredible. 

 Not only the established truths of Biology, but the established 

 truths of science in general, negative the supposition that organisms 

 having structures definite enough to identify them as belonging to 

 known genera and species, can be produced in the absence of germs 

 derived from antecedent organisms of the same genera and species. 

 If there can suddenly be imposed on simple protoplasm the organi- 

 zation which constitutes it a Paramoecium, I see no reason why 

 animals of greater complexity, or indeed of any complexity, may 

 not be constituted after the same manner. In brief, I do not accept 

 these alleged facts as exemplifying Evolution, because they imply 

 something immensely beyond that which Evolution, as 1 understand 

 it, can achieve. In the second place, my disbelief extends not only 

 to the alleged cases of " spontaneous generation," but to every case 

 akin to them. The very conception of spontaneity is wholly incon- 

 gruous with the conception of Evolution. For this reason I regard 

 as objectionable Mr. Darwin's phrase " spontaneous variation " 

 (as indeed he does himself) ; and I have sought to show that there 

 are always assignable causes of variation. No form of Evolution, 

 inorganic or organic, can be spontaneous ; but in every instance 

 the antecedent forces must be adequate in their quantities, kinds, 

 and distributions, to work the observed effects. Neither the al- 

 leged cases of " spontaneous generation," nor any imaginable cases 

 in the least allied to them, fulfil this requirement. 



If, accepting these alleged cases of " spontaneous generation," 

 I had assumed, as your reviewer seems to do, that the evolution of 

 organic life commenced in an analogous way ; then, indeed, I should 

 have left myself open to a fatal criticism. This supposed " spon- 

 taneous generation" habitually occurs in menstrua that contain 

 either organic matter, or matter originally derived from organisms ; 

 and such organic matter, proceeding in all known cases from or- 

 ganisms of a higher kind, implies the pre-existcnce of such higher 



