rld produce clover. Not to add, that it would be strange indeed if such
an instance were solitary, and that other vegetation should not be
produced by similar means.[3]

Vegetable and animal life, we ought here to mention, are considered by our
author as both derived from the same elementary germ which branches out
into the two great kingdoms of nature; so that it is of equal importance
to him to find a case of spontaneous generation amongst the plants as
amongst the animals. We must, therefore, extend the observation we made on
a certain class of cases amongst animals, to an analagous class of
supposed cases of spontaneous generation amongst vegetables. If that downy
mould, for instance, which the good housewife finds upon her pots of jam,
be considered as a vegetable, and be supposed to have grown without seed,
it would be somewhat analagous to the entozoa amongst animals; it would be
a vegetation produced by the decay of a previous vegetation.

It is only necessary to recall to mind the instances which naturalists
record of the minuteness of the seeds of life, and the manner in which
they may lie for a long time concealed, in order to induce us to presume,
in the majority of examples that are alleged of spontaneous generation,
the previous existence of the seed or the germ. Take the following from Dr
Carpenter's work on _Comparative Physiology_:--"Another very curious
example of fungous vegetation, in a situation where its existence was not
until recently suspected, is presented in the process of fermentation. It
appears from microscopic examination of a mass of yeast, that it consists
of a number of minute disconnected vesicles, which closely resemble those
of the Red Snow, and appear to constitute one of the simplest forms of
vegetation. These, like seeds, nay remain for almost any length of time in
an inactive condition without losing their vitality; but when placed in a
fluid in which any kind of sugary matter is contained, they commence
vegetating actively, provided the temperature is sufficiently high; and
they assist in producing that change in the composition of the fluid which
is known under the name of fermentation."--P. 74. With such instances
before us, the experiments of Messieurs Crosse and Weekes must be
conducted with singular care and judgment, in order to lead to any
satisfactory result.

Let us be allowed to say, that the experiments of those gentlemen excite
in us no horror or alarm. A Frankenste