366 OBSERVATIONS ON SPONTANEOUS 



decisive a manner, without giving hardly any arguments for it, 

 that a person may think it was so plainly and fully established 

 as to require none. As the work is likely to be much used by 

 young entomologists, as an introduction to the science, they may 

 be led to believe, from the positive way in which he states it, 

 that it is a well-established fact; which is well known not to be 

 the case. If you think the following observations upon it 

 worthy a place in your magazine, they are at your service. I 

 wish that some abler person had undertaken the task, as the 

 above doctrine has always formed one of the favourite argu- 

 ments of those who deny the superintendence of a Supreme 

 Being over the material world, and contend that every thing 

 has sprung from a fortuitous assemblage of atoms ; which the 

 doctrine of equivocal generation expressly supports. 



Burmeister, in his description of the generation of insects, 

 § 203, says, " With respect to observations upon the equivocal 

 generation of insects, we possess many credible authorities 

 which confirm it ;" he then cites the phenomenon of the Phtki- 

 riasis, and the authorities for it. The Acari or mites being 

 referred to a different class from insects by modern entomolo- 

 gists, he discards, after a few remarks, from consideration in 

 his observations, which are chiefly confined to the above species 

 of lice. He then considers, that it is from the secretions that 

 have a tendency to corruption that they originate. At the 

 conclusion of the above section, he says: "Precisely the same 

 takes place in the Entozoa. Von Bar has observed this deve- 

 lopment in the remarkable Bucephalus, and it is as good as 

 proved in many others ; why should not, therefore, the skin, 

 which has precisely the same structure as the mucous mem- 

 brane of the intestinal canal, give rise also to parasites peculiar 

 to it? I know nothing that satisfactorily opposes the adoption 

 of it. Equivocal generation consequently takes place in the 

 lowest insects; they can originate from it, and do so frequently." 

 When philosophers are wedded to an opinion or theory, how 

 ludicrous it is to observe (were it not also a lamentable proof 

 of the weakness of the human mind) their earnest and anxious 

 endeavours to wrest every fact they possibly can to the support 

 of their favourite doctrine, until they prove too much, and some 

 succeeding writer, with ruthless hand, uncovers and exposes the 

 sandy foundation on which they have built, and dashes the 

 whole superstructure to the ground. I know not what Von 



