SPONTANEITY OF CONTAGIOUS DISEASES. 
509 
regard to this subject, I may say, might have had some influence 
upon my belief, were it not that I see very many inconsistencies 
in the beliefs and statements of those who oppose my views, and 
also if 1 had not lived long enough to see many theories of this 
kind grow into settled convictions in spite of the flercest opposi¬ 
tion and contradiction. I well remember the sensation produced 
when that noteworthy book, entitled Vestiges of the Natural 
History of Creation ” appeared, and the strife among scientific 
(as well as religious) people when the theory of the spontaneous 
origin of life was announced. Then followed the germ theory; 
the investigations of Pasteur and others, the theories of Darwin, 
Huxley and other biologists, until opinion now is divided pretty 
evenly among scientific men as to whether life does really evolve 
itself from matter, and originates spontaneously, or is an actual 
creation by some miraculous and supreme power that is unknown 
and unknowable. 
This question, however profound it may be, is related in the 
closest manner to the one under consideration. For if matter 
can form itself, by virtue of certain laws of attraction and growth, 
into germs that are endowed with a power of motion—as con¬ 
traction and expansion, and as in the infusoria—then it is quite 
possible that higher, and indeed the very highest forms of life, 
including the mental faculties, may be produced by the operation 
of similar laws; for sense and thought are but the effects of the 
motion of certain nerves, acting in a somewhat similar manner to 
the movements by which the rotiflers are enable to whirl them¬ 
selves about in their little field under the lenses of the microscope. 
Now does this view detract in any way from the infinite wisdom of 
that power we call the Creator, for it is as high a form of power 
that is required to make a law and subject all matter to its opera¬ 
tion, as that necessary to mold matter separately into every form 
of life and give it sensation and sense. 
All this is pertinent to the point at issue; for if a germ can 
be formed ab origine , it can also be formed de novo ; and multipli¬ 
cation can go on indefinitely, not only by natural increase by gen¬ 
eration, but also by formation under favorable conditions. But 
I do not go so far as this. The point I desire to make is simply 
