ir. 
cmployeil a magnifying pow(!i- of 25U0 diameters. (1 may perliap.s 
make this amount of amplification clearer to my non-microscopic 
friends by asking them to imagine an object one inch in lengtli 
.subject to this enlargement, it would then be equal in length to 69 
yards.) With this was perceiv'ed that the ruptured cyst was 
pouring out what at fir.st sight appeared like a vi.scid ma.ss, but 
when examined in a more dispersed condition, presented the 
appearance of minute granulation. Under a still higher power it 
became evident that a dense mass of granules inconceivably small, 
were being emitted from the cy.st. This observation, being of 
great importance, was repeated with the same results. It now 
became desirable to study the future of those infinitesimal spores, 
which even with a power of 2500 diameters, were only visible from 
their enormous aggregation (the authoi-s emleavour to give some 
idea of their minuteness by figures of other minute forms placed in 
juxtaposition. You will, perhaps, be able to form some notion of 
their extreme minuteness, when I tell you that a dot of an 
inch in diameter, would be visible to the unassisted eye, and the.se 
spores, when magnified 2.500 times, were only vi.sible when in 
masses.) After watching them without intennission for six hours, 
the granules were found to have gradually increased in size. After 
the expiration of nine hours the flagella were distinctly seen, and 
in somewhat le.ss than twelve hours, the normal size of the parent 
form was attained, and in about forty minutes after fission began to 
t-ake place. This continues from two to eight days, when every- 
thing as before described commences. 
These observations are of great value, as they have determined 
the actual life history of .some of those singular forms of life, and 
which were often supposed to be merely early stages of higher 
organisms ; but in no case have the authors been able to detect any 
development into more complex forms, and as their observations 
extended over three yeai-s, the number of individuals observed 
must have been something enormous. These experiments seem to 
me to be almost conclusive that Abiogenesis is a fallacy ari.sing from 
the extreme minuteness of the spores of all those simple organisms, 
and the impos.sibility of excluding their pre.sence. Messrs. Di vsdale 
