are in essence materials which are not dead but only dying, 

 i.e. they are devoid only of their previous form and not of 

 the property of living in another form. The most important 

 example of conversion of destroyed organic material into 

 creatures that are alive and organized is the birth or 

 development of animals and primitive plants [Protozoa, 

 Protophyta) with which the organic kingdom began." 



In relation to the vertebrate animal, Lovetskii rejected 

 the possibility of spontaneous development. He stated his 

 reasons in a special article, "On the Larvae of Insects and 

 Frogs Living inside the Human Body. "53 He cited cases 

 described by Professor Spassky where, according to the 

 observations of a Doctor Gubchenko, a nineteen-year-old 

 girl in a period from "July to October 13, vomited up to thirty 

 live toads of different sizes." Assuming that she had swallowed 

 developing toad eggs, Lovetskii wrote: "To confirm that the 

 toads initially could develop in the intestinal canal of man 

 by spontaneous generation is highly ridiculous and not in 

 compliance with any understanding of things. Only the invisibles 

 (infusoria, worms, lice, and mites) could appear by spontaneous 

 generation in the animal organism." 



Lovetskii' s ideas about fertilization and embryonic 

 development stand close to his opinions about spontaneous 

 development. In the above-cited article, "On the Initial 

 Development of Worms," Lovetskii handled these issues with 

 the following: "The plant grain and animal eggs, being still 

 in an undefined and immature condition, do not have any 

 defined shape. Essentially they are featureless material, which 

 changes after fertilization by means of vital chemical 

 fermentation. This material forms a mucous bladder (the initial 

 point of body-development) , with later development of organs 

 and equilibrium maintained by the same fluid materials from 

 which it received its physical beginning." 54 



53. Lovetskii, in NEW MAGAZINE, Part 2 (1828), pp. 265 - 275 



54 . Quotations from the work of Lovetskii were^, adopted from 

 A. P. Borgdanov, CARL FRANTSOVICH RULE AND HIS 

 PREDECESSORS IN THE IMPERIAL MOSCOW UNIVERSITY 

 CIzv. Obsh. Lyub. Estestv., Antrop. i Etnogr., 43, 1885). 



180 



