EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
655 
nucleus and nucleolus. The first may be considered as the 
ovary, the second as the testicle of infusoria. Thus hermaphro- 
dism is the general rule. Again, how is it that no new form or 
order of beings exists ? Varieties there are in great numbers, 
but they are all referable to the original type. The axiom is 
doubtless true, “ ex nihilo nihil fit.” Is not the referring 
of the production of living organisms to “ spontaneous 
generation ” a mere cloak for our ignorance, and a barrier to 
all investigation ? On the other hand, does this assumption 
in the least remove the mystery that is connected with the 
subject, or tend to draw aside the veil which enshrouds it ? 
We trow not. Far more consistent and wiser it would be 
for man to express his inability to comprehend that which is 
so profound and mysterious. 
So in reference to another division of science—for take 
whatever section you may, we can never reach its bounda¬ 
ries, however near we may approach them—it has been said 
that “ human egotism has been at the bottom of many 
speculative errors, and man has too often tried to dwarf the 
universe so as to bring it within the limits of his feeble 
faculties, and make its operations correspond in brevity of 
duration with the shortness of his mortal life.” 
A universal diffusion of germs has been considered as a more 
feasible theory, and hence the saying, “ omne vivum ex ovo.” 
There may be some little difficulty in accounting for the first- 
deposited egg, but we know that it may remain unacted on 
for years until certain fit conditional circumstances cause the 
development of life from it; this we see in the soil that has 
not been upturned for ages, when plants of several kinds 
spring up, simply because the seeds have been subjected to 
the stimulating influence of the oxygen of the air and the 
heat of the sun, or perhaps its light, the truly invigorating 
principle. 
It does not, of necessity, follow that the eggs are pro¬ 
ductive of the same forms as those animals by which they 
were deposited, since these may undergo many transforma¬ 
tions ere they arrive at their perfect or mature stage of 
existence. Instances of this are so numerous, as seen in 
the batrachia and lepidoptera, as not to need their being 
