EXPERIMENTS ON SPONTANEOUS GENERATION, ETC. 115 
yet declare that they have never seen an instance of “spon- 
taneous generation” of organised forms. It is asked “Why 
should men of such acknowledged eminence in matters of 
philosophy and science as Mr. Herbert Spencer and Professor 
Huxley promulgate a notion which seems to involve an arbi- 
trary infringement of the uniformity of nature ? ” I dare not 
answer for them ; but for myself I answer, Because the facts as 
presented to them on the subject — as well known to them as to 
Hr. Bastian, and we may venture to say as well considered — 
do not appear to involve the “arbitrary infringement” of 
nature’s uniformity of which Dr. Bastian speaks. If these 
admittedly competent and proverbially fearless men could be 
led by facts to see that their teaching promulgated an “ arbi- 
trary infringement ” of nature’s method, is it rational to suppose 
that they would persist in it another hour ? The very position, 
therefore, of the leading biologists of the day in relation to the 
hypothesis of “spontaneous generation” is an authoritative 
declaration of the invalidity of the data on which it rests. 
To Dr. Bastian, nevertheless, the “ facts,” such as they are, 
have carried a different conviction. But on analysis, that convic- 
tion is evidently not wholly formed upon the bare “ facts.” It is 
influenced and stimulated by a “philosophy” which, in short, is 
this : — Continuity in nature is the grand outcome of all modern 
research ; but if you are to have this in a sense wide enough to 
include the organic world, you must have “ spontaneous genera- 
tion.” Gfive up this, and continuous evolution is impossible ; 
therefore abiogenesis must be a great truth. 
Of course continuity in nature is a profound truth. Every 
careful and comprehensive student of modern biology will admit 
that. By Dr. Bastian’s own showing, Huxley, Darwin, and 
Spencer are its most competent expositors. But they prefer 
not to be hasty. They decline to determine the exact manner 
or line of that continuity until they have facts of a competent 
land to guide them. There may be lines of continuity infinitely 
more subtle than any the subtlest minds have even conceived. 
At least they decline to accept one, laid down, as it appears to 
them, not by nature, but by Dr. Bastian ; and no believer in 
the evolution of living things, surely, is recreant of his creed 
who declines a similar surrender. 
The largest difficulty surrounding the question of the mode 
of origin of septic organisms is that of discovering their life- 
cycle. By dealing with them in aggregations we run told and 
untold risks. The conflict of results by this means, in the most 
accomplished hands, employing the most refined methods during 
the past eighteen years, is a sufficient witness. Repetitions of 
experiments, and conflicting results, and explanations of the 
reason why ; and so the cycle rolls. Of course important lessons 
