T36 VESTIGES OF THE 



great number of instances where the superficial observers 

 of former times assumed a non-generative origin for 

 life (as in the celebrated case in Virgil's fourth Georgie), 

 either the direct conti-aiy has been ascertained, or 

 exhaustive experiments have left no alternative from the 

 conclusion that ordinary generation did take place, albeit 

 in a manner which escapes observation. Finding that an 

 erroneous assumption has been formed in many cases, 

 modern inquirers have not hesitated to assume that there 

 can be no case in which generation is not concerned. 

 Now their conclusion may be right, but it clearly is not 

 one beyond question ; and it is equally true that the 

 explanations suggested in difficult cases are often far 

 from being satisfactory. When, for instance, lime is laid 

 down upon a piece of waste moss ground, and a crop of 

 white clover for which no seeds were sown is the con- 

 sequence, the common explanation is, that the seeds have 

 been doi-mant there for an unknown time, and were 

 stimulated into germination when the lime produced the 

 appropriate circumstances. How is it possible to be 

 satisfied with this hypothesis, when we know (as in an 

 authentic case under my notice) that the spot is many 

 miles from where clover is cultivated, and that there is 

 nothing for six feet below but pure peat moss, clover 

 seeds being, moreover, known to be too hea\y to be 

 transported, as many other seeds are, by the winds? 

 There are several persons eminent in science who profess 

 at least to find great difficulties in accepting the doctrine 

 of invariable generation. One of these, in the work 

 noted below,* has stated several considerations arising 

 from analogical reasoning, which appear to him to throw 

 the balance of evidence in favour of the aboriginal proJuc- 



* Di-. Allen Thomson, in the ariiclo '• Ceneration," in ToJtl's " Cyclo- 

 pnedia of Anatomy and Physiology." 



