M. Edwards on Spontaneous Generation. 401 
Art, XLVII.—On Spontaneous Generation. 
1. Remarks of Prof. Minne Epwarps on the value of certain 
. ve as evidence of the spontaneous generation of animals, made 
ore the Academy of Sciences at Paris,* at the session of Janu- 
ary 3, 1859. 
Physiologists have long been divided on the subject of the 
ongin of life in organized beings. The larger part believe 
that this force exists only where it has been transmitted ; that 
from the creation of the species till the present time, an unin- 
terrupted chain of possessors of this power has communicated 
Itsuccessively ; and that dead matter has no power of organizing 
a plant or an animal unless it be submitted to the action of a 
living being or a germ that has proceeded from an individual of 
some species. 
out the agency of a generating being; that plants and animals 
may produce themselves in all their parts without deriving the 
Long 
*ologists to dis 
cay writes i dus, 1859, p, 23, 'Thé Zoologists and other members piihe Aces. 
bead of lars here expressed their views on spontaneous generation, 
Boh hy Der SRE, . | 
