CHAPTER XI 



SPONTANEOUS GENERATION 



Three states of electronic aggregation — Spontaneous genera- 

 tion a problem like that of perpetual motion cannot be demon- 

 strated — Views of Pasteur and Weismann — Objections to 

 Pasteur's results — Views of Bastian — J. Arthur Thomson 

 — Haeckel — Bastian' s heterogenesis — Method of filtration 

 — Japp's views on asymmetric structures — Asymmetric 

 structure of biogen — Origin of asymmetric structure as 

 profound as that of life — Karl Pearson and MtzGerald on 

 climate as a factor in producing asymmetry. 



From what has been said the term spontaneous 

 generation admits of more than one interpretation, 

 and the sense in which we use it must not 

 be understood to mean the development of life 

 from the absolutely lifeless. On the contrary, as 

 we have endeavoured to show, there is a continuity 

 throughout the whole realm of Nature and the 

 various scales or orders of magnitude of which 

 natural phenomena take place. There is, as we 

 say, a continuity in vital processes, and the 

 phenomena of the building up and breaking down 

 of integrated units take place in an ever simplify- 

 ing scale throughout the Universe. In the pheno- 

 menon of life in protoplasm it manifests itself in a 



