proved? It is certain that seeds will remain dormant in the soil for
centuries, and then spring up the first year the soil is turned up by
the plough. Some seeds have retained their vitality for thousands of
years in the old tombs of Egypt; they have been repeatedly brought to
England, sown, and produced good wheat.

We are next told that wild pigs never have the measles, they are
produced by a _hyatid_ and the result of domestication; that a _tinea_
is found in dressed wool that does not exist in its unwashed state; that
a certain insect disdains all food but chocolate, and that the larva of
_oinopota cellaris_ only lives in wine and beer. All these are articles
manufactured by man, and are adduced as proofs of animal life,
independent of any primordial egg. The entoza are dwelt upon; they are
creatures living in the interior of other animals, of which the
tape-worm that infests the human body is a melancholy instance. In
these illustrations we think the author has some show of reason, for we
feel convinced that there is such a thing as spontaneous generation from
the inorganic substance, wisely provided for clearing the earth of
noxious effluvia and putrid matter, and converting them into new
elements conducive to health and life. We believe in this source of
vitality from its wisdom and necessity, its necessity and wisdom, in our
estimate, being strong presumptive proofs of its existence in harmony
with the general forecast and economy of nature. Of the self-originating
spring of life, some of the examples adduced by the author are proofs,
and of which we have familiar illustrations in cheese-mites, maggots in
carrion, and the green fly that breeds so profusely in weak and decaying
vegetation; in all which by some inscrutable law the organic germ,
without an antecedent, appears to evolve from the dead or putrifying
mass for its riddance and transmutation.