SPONTANEOUS GENERATION 193 



the living state or biogenetic state when they form 

 a highly complex aggregate, and the material 

 state when they are finally condensed into definite 

 forms like crystals corresponding to the free states 

 in which the atoms of matter in a much larger 

 scale are also to be found, namely, the gaseous, 

 the liquid, and the crystalline or solid states. 



Organic or cellular life as we see it at the 

 present day is thus the result of the physical and 

 chemical properties of biogen, and not of its 

 chemical properties alone. The formation of such 

 cells is what is generally called spontaneous 

 generation, and the current belief of the present 

 day is that such cells are never to be found 

 except as the descendants of other cells. 



Pasteur in his investigations on the floating 

 matter of the air arrived at the conclusion that 

 living organic matter is always the result 

 of previously existing living organic matter, 

 and Tyndall, in his similar investigations, ex- 

 pressed a similar belief " that it is unlikely that 

 the notion of bacterial life developed from dead 

 dust can ever regain currency among the members 

 of a great scientific profession." " Omne vivum 

 ex vivo " was their dogma. Dr. Bastian, on the 

 other hand, has consistently maintained that life 

 does spring from the apparently lifeless, although 

 how he shows or can show from his experiments 

 that invisible organic germs have been destroyed 

 is not apparent. In fact, this is Weismann's 

 great difficulty in accepting any proof of spon- 



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