is to say, by the intervention of a pre-existing living organism.
Spontaneous Generation an Episode in the History of the Globe.—Though we have been unable to effect spontaneous generation up to the present, it has been referred by Haeckel to a more or less distant past, to the time when the cooling of the globe, the solidification of its crust, and the condensation of aqueous vapour upon its surface created conditions compatible with the existence of living beings similar to those with which we are acquainted. Lord Kelvin has fixed these geological events as occurring from twenty to forty million years ago. Then circumstances became propitious for the appearance of the first organisms, whence were successively derived those which now people the earth and the waters.
Circumstances favourable to the appearance of the first beings apparently occurred only in a far distant past; but most physiologists admit that if we knew exactly these circumstances, and could reproduce them, we might also expect to produce their effect—namely, the creation of a living being, formed in all its parts, developed from the inorganic kingdom. To all those who held this view the impotence of experiment at the present time is purely temporary. It is comparable to that of primitive men before the time of Prometheus; they, not knowing how to produce fire, could only get it by transmitting it from one to another. It is due to the inadequacy of our knowledge and the weakness of our means; it does not contradict the possibility of the fact.
Contrary Opinion. Life did not Originate on our Globe.—But all biologists do not share this opinion. Some, and not the least eminent, hold it to be an
