248 ZOOLOGICAL PHILOSOPHY 



are born and multiply so abundantly on the trunks of trees and on 

 rocks favoured by moisture and a mild temperature ? 



Doubtless as soon as nature has directly created an animal or plant, 

 the existence of hfe in this body not only endows it with the faculty 

 of growth, but also with that of separating off some of its parts, and in 

 short of forming granular corpuscles suitable for reproducing it. Does 

 it follow that this body which has just obtained the faculty of pro- 

 pagating individuals of its own species must necessarily have sprung 

 itself from corpuscles similar to those that it forms ? This is a question 

 which in my opinion is well worthy of examination. 



Whether the kind of direct generations, here referred to, do or do not 

 actually take place, as to which at present I have no settled opinion, 

 it seems to me certain at all events that nature actually carries out 

 such generations at the beginning of each kingdom of hving bodies, 

 and that she could never, except through this medium, have brought 

 into existence the animals and plants which Hve on our earth. 



Let us now pass to an enquiry as to the immediate results of life in 

 a body. 



