82 DISTINCTION BETWEEN ANIMALS, 



The chief forms of Hfe which were believed by Aristotle 

 to be generated spontaneously were: — (1) some flowerless 

 plants ; (2) many of his Ostrahoderma, especially those now 

 called gastropods and lamellibranchs ; (3) some of his 

 Entoma, and (4) some fishes, such as, for example, eels and 

 certain kinds of mullets. These forms of life, different as 

 they are both in structure and in the amount of vital prin- 

 ciple they seem to possess, resemble one another, according 

 to Aristotle, in being generated immediately from inanimate 

 matter. To this extent, therefore, the two important 

 passages from H. A. viii. c. 1, and P. A. iv. c. 5, previously 

 cited, are clear. Some of these forms of life resemble one 

 another sufficiently to form an assemblage which unites 

 inanimate matter with higher plants and animals, such as 

 flowering plants, insects, crustaceans, cephalopods, and the 

 numerous animals constituting Aristotle's Enaima, which 

 corresponds to a large extent with the Vertebrata. 



The ancient Greeks had no difficulty in believing in 

 spontaneous generation, and even Aristotle took the trouble 

 to consider the common saying that men and some quadru- 

 peds were generated from the earth. It is true that he was 

 not inclined to believe in generation from the earth itself, 

 but he seems to have admitted the possibility of generation 

 of men and some quadrupeds from much lower forms of 

 life, for he says that, if generation from the earth did 

 happen, it must have been generation from worms or larvae, 

 or from ova.* 



In H. A. ii. c. 5, s. 1, he says that the Barbary Ape and 

 other monkeys and also baboons partake of the nature of 

 both men and quadrupeds. Neither in this nor, appar- 

 ently, in any other passage does Aristotle show that he had 

 any idea of a development of higher forms of life from 

 common ancestors, at all resembling the Darwinian idea of 

 the origin of species. When referring to Aristotle's state- 

 ment about the Barbary Ape, Agassiz says that Strack in 

 his translation! makes Aristotle say that monkeys form a 

 transition between men and quadrupeds, but the original 

 says no such thing.! This is quite true, and the comment 

 by Agassiz illustrates the danger of translating Aristotle too 

 freely. 



Aristotle had some knowledge of no fewer than five 



=1= G. A. iii. c. 11, 7626. 



f Aristofeles Natur. der TJiiere, 1816, p. 65. 



I An Essay on Classific, London, 1859, p. 97, Note. 



