FROM SIMPLE PERCEPTIBLE MATTER. 565 
4. Some species are the same in the most remote parts of the world. 
5. The geographical diffusion of infusoria on the earth follows the 
already known laws of other natural bodies. Southwards there are 
more varying forms, supplying the place of those of other parts of the 
globe, than westward and eastward, but they are nowhere wanting; 
the influence of difference of climate is not confined to the larger kinds. 
6. The salt water of the lakes of the Siberian steppes does not ex- 
hibit any peculiar infusorial forms varying in any remarkable manner. 
7. The water of the sea supports other and larger forms than the 
river waters; many however are identical; in none of these known 
does the magnitude exceed a line. 
8. In the atmospheric vapour which is precipitated as rain and dew, 
I have never been able to observe, and I believe no one else with cer- 
tainty, living infusoria. (I have related some recent experiments of 
mine on this subject.) 
9. In the deep subterranean places where atmospheric air, but 
scarcely a minimum of reflected light, finds entrance, are found families 
of the same infusoria as at the surface. 
10. Direct observations in support of the generatio primitiva have 
all, as it now appears, been deficient in the requisite exactness. Those 
same observers who supposed that they had seen the spontaneous ori- 
gin of minute organized beings from primitive matters, have quite 
overlooked the very complicated structure of these organisms. Here 
a great error cannot be doubted, and the delusion is evident. This is 
perhaps less to be ascribed to the fault of the observer’s precipitancy 
than to the weak powers of the instruments employed, or the want of 
practice in their use. Observations on the origin of crustaceous animals 
and insects from primitive substances are the echos of the olden time, 
when caterpillars grew from the leaves. 
11. The idea that man was dependent, even if only in part, upon 
the will of those infusoria of which he was composed, is proved to be 
absurd, from the fact that the infusoria must seek their food, lay eggs, 
and never combine into a fixed and growing state*. (Some it is true 
unite at times into heaps, but these separate again into individuals. ) 
12. The development of all those infusorial forms which I have been 
able to observe is cyclical, quite certain, but at times abounding in 
varying forms, and from that cause delusive and demanding careful 
observation. 
*This may appear an exaggeration, but we need only refer the reader to 
Dr. Carus’s paper on the Kingdoms of Nature, etc. in page 246 of the present 
volume, where he says, 
“If we now reflect likewise how in the infusoria and Priestley’s matter, 
the rudiments of the animal kingdom appear as so many animated globuli, we 
shall thence perceive that the largest animal bodies themselves must be viewed 
as an innumerable aggregate of infusoria, but at the same time united into a 
living whole.” W. F. 
2Q2 
