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ArticLe XXVIII. 
On the Origin of Organic Matter from simple Perceptible 
Matter, and on Organic Molecules and Atoms; together 
with some Remarks on the Power of Vision of the Human 
Eye; by Prof. C. G. ExRENBERG. 
(From Poggendorff’s Annalen der Physik und Chemie, vol. xxiv. p. 1.*) 
Tuere have been philosophers who have considered the magnitude 
of the elementary particles of bodies not to be so extremely minute as 
to be beyond the reach of the human senses; and there have been che- 
mists who have conceived it to be possible to follow the successive 
combinations of the primitive substances or simple matter up to the for- 
mation of living organisms, indeed, have even given them a place in the 
class of observed facts. Others have thought that they perceived a 
peculiar process of fermentation, the product of which was the forma- 
tion of minute animal and vegetable bodies, and to which process the 
name of infusorial fermentation has been given. The probability of 
obtaining organic bodies by chemico-synthetical means has of late 
gained ground chiefly because we had advanced so far as the prepara- 
tion, almost synthetical in appearance, of some organic products by 
chemical means, and have observed galvanic processes or capillary ac- 
tions, which are very similar to, perhaps quite the same as, certain or- 
ganic phenomena. As this is one of the most interesting and import- 
ant subjects of human inquiry, and has excited hopes of great and 
speedy results, it may be useful, in order that our inquiries may not de- 
viate from the right road, to direct the attention of philosophers and 
chemists to some physiological experiments which I read in the Academy 
of Sciences of Berlin, and which I made known last year in a zoological 
memoir, extracts of which have been given in other journals devoted to 
physics, but which, so to speak, I myself will endeavour to clothe in 
a physical dress. 
I. Critical examination of the GENERATIO JEQUIVOCA. 
I have for a long series of years been occupied in investigating the 
conditions of the generatio equivoca of organic bodies. For this pur- 
pose it was necessary to subject to careful observation, as to their vital 
relations and primitive conditions, those organic bodies of whose origin 
a generatio primitiva or spontanea is asserted. 
_ 1. Fungi.—By careful examinations of the fungi and of mould, the 
* The Editor is indebted for the translation and communication of this paper 
_ to Mr. W. Francis. 
