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THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 



309 



changes to occur in various parts of the body when the 

 general Wital powers' are lowered by disease 1. And, 

 for a similar reason, heterogenetic changes take place 

 still more freely when the organism itself is dead, 

 and when its component parts are left to struggle on 

 under the most adverse circumstances, until the little- 

 remote period when death overtakes them also^. 

 Then in all parts of the dead organism there is a 

 bursting-forth into new life. Myriads of Bacteria and 



Fungus - germs 



are 



born from their parent fluids, 



though all this is hidden from our ordinary view, and 



its effects only become manifest when the ever-varying 



forms of ^ mould' and *^ mildew' appear and flourish on 



the surface of the previously living aggregate 3. 



For the most part I intend to confine myself to the 



consideration of the mode of origin of these lowest 



organisms within the substance of higher plants and 

 animals. I do not propose to enter into the question 



of the possibility of the independent origin of any of 



the higher parasitic Entozoa. The occurrence of these 



parasites was formerly regarded as one of the strongest 



points in favour of the doctrine of Heterogeny. But 



the investigations of numerous helminthologists have 



done much to remove very many of the difficulties 



which were formerly regarded by Miiller and others as 



almost impossible to be explained on the supposition 



^ See p. 190. 



3 See Prof. Grant's ' Tabular View, 

 and 91. 



2 See vol. i. p. no. 

 &c., of Recent Zoology,' pp. 5 



