? 



•• 



a 





ses 





s derniersf 



)ugh perfaf 



most peofi 

 terly witk 



icesses 



i 



ismsp 

 bich he woi!; 



to 



dam, i;P' 

 usual feli*^' 

 be conts- 



the fallacy 6 ^^ 



is no gr«»""; 

 . of devel< 



in,? 



.he opi"^;..J 



t:^^ beginnings of life. 



269 



According to Spallanzani^ on the other hand^ all 



earthy air^ and water^ bodies organic and bodies 



were saturated with ^ germs/ or potential 



This notion was not quite so extrava- 



things 



morgan ic 



living things. 



gant as that of Bonnet^ though it was equally without 

 legitimate foundation in the actual knowledge of the 

 time\ It was put forward to explain certain facts— 



and the theory itself was then supposed to be sub- 

 stantiated by the occurrence of these same facts. This 

 c^ Que cd: was the vicious circle by means of which the hypo- 

 ue nous fell. thesis was supported. It was believed in only too 



readily by the majority^ because it enabled them to stave 

 off for a period the acceptance of views which the state 

 of science and philosophy at that time rendered it diflG- 



An erroneo^ ^^^^ ^^^ them to accept. Spallanzani thought that the 



air carried with it everywhere the germs of myriads of 

 elementary organisms^ or^ at all events^ some ^prlnctpes 



^recrganises^ invisible 



and idealj which we can 



1 



only 



compare with the disembodied spirits whose existence 

 is postulated by the Pythagorean philosophers. 



L 



' Morte carent animse : semperque, priore relicta 

 Sede, novis domibus habitant, vivuntque receptae/ 



Spallanzani^ nevertheless, was not, on all occasions, 



them, to the assertion that the original germ of every species contained - 

 'ed ak^^^-'^fi within it all the countless individuals which in process of time might 



issue from it; and this in no metaphysical "potential" guise, but as • 

 actual boxed-up existences {emboites) ; so that Adam and Eve were in 

 the most literal sense progenitors of the whole human race, and con- 

 tamed their progeny already shaped within them, awaiting the great 



accoucheur, Time.* (' Fortnightly Review,' June, t868, p. 593.) 



