THE BEGINNINGS OF II FE. 



249 



'' therefore 



: ^'^^het did 

 losis' 



and he 

 ^■■^g^nist; be. 



^^ ^^ vegetable 

 rented) were 

 special ' vital 

 fective agencj 

 'I have 



ated by forces 



and chemical 



has never at- 



ht come into 



I 



ictrines announcd 

 ning ' corps hemi- 



[ 65) :-'Ces corps 



dtfllines, &c, I^ 

 leselonmoi deles 



es designe, sous le 

 ,nt le miliea entre 

 \e sont pas enc«« 

 e force vitak, ca> 



en rai^-"' * 



ft _ Jf 



I 



I 



I 



I 



■ r 



I 



» 





f 



I 





being in solutions which had previously contained 

 merely mineral ingredients. This was only possible, 

 he thought^ in organic solutions, the matter of which 

 had been previously formed under the influence of Life, 

 and whose properties it still retained 1. The postulation 

 by Needham of a special ^ force vegetative/ and by 

 Buffon of the invariable agency of vital, though imma- 

 terial, ^molecules organiques,' suffice to place them in 

 this same category: they are all persons whose theo- 

 retical views have been framed in such a way as to 

 exclude the possibility of their belief in the origin of 

 the living from the not-living. 

 Archebiosis not being one of the elements of their 



The possibility of 



philosophical creed, they would give a different inter- 

 pretation to certain facts which, in the minds of others, 

 might seem to testify to the occurrence of such a process. 



the word 



Seeing that the notion represented 

 ^ Archebiosis' is one which — on account of these theo- 

 retical views — does not very often occur in previous 



■ . • 



writmgs upon 



^spontaneous generation,' and 



seeing 



how desirable it is to separate this idea from that 



^ Many will, however, rather agree with us in thinking that a mere 

 solution made by infusing animal or vegetable tissues, has— apart from 

 germs of living things which it may contain — no more title to the 

 epithet ' living,' than has any solution of mineral substances a right to 

 such an appellation. For those who hold such opinions, therefore, the 

 appearance of living things in organic solutions (after all pre-existing 

 germs had been destroyed), should it occur, would be as much a case of 

 liorg^^''"''" /Q0S ^^^ origin of the living from the not-living, as if the new forms of life 



. tran^^^^^ j ^^^ appeared, in spite of similar precautions, in solutions containing 



mere mineral or saline constituents. 



