104 THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION 



this stubborn tendency to self-preservation ? These 

 arose, according to Mereschkowsky, in the following 

 way : As gradually the conditions for the formation 

 of new mycoplasma became more unfavourable ' the 

 albumen began to decompose, to decay, and it could 

 no longer build anew. By virtue of this there conse- 

 quently disappeared the conditions for the formation 

 of living mycoplasma, and the further development of 

 life could only proceed on the principle of omne vivum 

 e vivo. There arose at once one of the main differentia- 

 ting peculiarities of life the capacity of reproduction, 

 i.e. of commencing new beings from living parts of the 

 old ones, since only such particles of albumen could 

 flourish which possessed this faculty ^ and had such not 

 been produced, then there would have been no life on 

 the earth.' l 



Thus, because albumen commenced to decay, the 

 principle of omne vivum. e vivo had to arise, since, had 

 it not arisen, there would have been no life. Is that a 

 scientific explanation of spontaneous generation ? 



Such attempts render J. Reinke's words comprehen- 

 sible which he wrote of Naegeli : c Thereby I think I 

 have shown . . . that the grounds put forward by him 

 for the occurrence of spontaneous generation can hold 

 water so little that they make the spontaneous origin 

 of organisms appear as absolutely unthinkable/ 3 



We cannot, therefore, see how 0. Hertwig 3 can term 



1 Biol Zentralbl, 1910, p. 362, 2 Reinke : Die Weltals Tat, p. 337. 

 Allgemeine Biologie, p. 270. 



