d laying their eggs. Then it was alleged that the entozoa, the
worms found in the bodies of animals, were self-produced, without eggs,
until the microscope discovered that one could lay 60,000 eggs. Strauss,
however, adhered to the idea that as the tapeworm, as he supposed, was
self-produced, so man was originated by the primeval slime. So also
Professor Vogt, and M. Tremaux develop their animals from the land, and
the latter accounts for their various qualities from the various
qualities of their respective birthplaces, the crop being conditioned by
the soil. But Mr. Darwin derives all his organisms from the sea.
Electricity in its galvanic form was for a while the agent to fire the
earthly or marine mud with the vital spark; and Mr. Crosse's experiments
were supposed instances of the creation of acarii or mites in the
battery bath, until it was found that the bath contained eggs and the
electricity only hatched them. Some English evolutionists still adhere
to the theory of Spontaneous Generation, but the leading Germans deny
any instance of it being known. Huxley denies that any case of it has
been established as now practicable; but supposes that if we could have
been present at the beginning of the world, when all the elements were
young and vigorous, we should have seen the chemical elements of the
earth and air combining to form living beings, by the mere powers of
their nature. If that were the fact, it would be a fact unique and
unparalleled, utterly out of the course of nature, and so as contrary to
the theory of evolution as if these living beings had been inspired with
life by Almighty God.

So the theory here again is divided. Two utterly irreconcilable ideas of
the origin of life claim our belief--the theories of Biogenesis, and of
Abiogenesis, the one says all life is from the egg, and has always been
so; and so we have an eternal begetting of finite creatures; the other
alleges the spontaneous beginning of plants and animals; a fact, if it
be a fact, as unparalleled as creation, and far more miraculous.

As to the history of the progress of the germs of plants and animals
thus produced, we find still greater diversities of opinion, not only as
to details, but as to principles. Each inventor has added to, or
altered, the original idea of evolution, until it has been burdened with
more improvements and new patents than the sewing machine; only the
evolutionary improvements bid fair to improve the theory out