Spontaneous Generation. 141 



word, protos, signifies " first." At once ii; was inter- 

 esting to see how at this plastic stage in the possi- 

 bilities of scientific development, a whole series of 

 primary elements sprang up in biology as by a kin- 

 dred instinct of spontaneous generation. There 

 were the orders of protists and protophytes and pro- 

 tozoa, etc. And what added to the completeness of 

 the view, and the absolute establishment of organic 

 evolution, was that, at this stage of life, animal and 

 plant are indistinguishable. They were confounded 

 by Ehrenberg; and, if one evolved by spontaneous 

 generation, so could the other as well; yes, and we 

 may add, they could just as easily evolve from one 

 another besides. 



155. All this is now a romance of the past, be- 

 longing to the dim border-land where 



1 1 • • ■ « No Neutral 



dreams and imagination love to dwell. Ground. 

 As Gordon Salamon remarked, " Even Negative 



. , . n . Argument. 



protoplasm has a specific organization 

 of its own." And, equivocation evaporating from 

 the moist product of imagination, the light of sci- 

 ence waxes strong, and the chemistry of the ques- 

 tion is precipitated to its own sedimentary level: 

 vitality rises to its proper sphere; and, between the 

 two, spontaneous generation, that again seemed to 

 be, has once more ceased to be. 



156. A negative and a positive manner of proving 

 this have been successfully adopted; and the re- 

 sults are universally accepted. That was a nega- 

 tive way which was followed by Schwann, Van Ben- 



