originally implanted in the earth. This illustrious physician and
biologist, the discoverer of the circulation of the blood, not only taught
the doctrine expressed in his phrase "_omne vivum ex ovo_," but that of
"primordial germs"--living indestructible "principles of life"--existing
in the earth itself. For it is evident that he uses the word "egg," in its
more general sense, as designating any material substance capable of
receiving his "primordium" (first principle of life) and developing itself
into a living organism.

The whole controversy, as at present conducted by the materialists and
vitalists, resolves itself into this one question:--Whether life springs
from what Dr. Harvey calls a "primordium,"--a pre-existing vital germ or
unit--or whether it originates _de novo_, as the materialists assert, from
infusions contained in their experimental flasks, or from plastide
particles contained in protoplasmic matter, or from the still more daring
hypothesis of "molecular machinery" as worked by molecular force? It is
certain that the materialistic theory is quite as inexplicable, on the
basis of analogical reasoning and microscopical investigation, as that
indicated in the Bible Genesis; while the vitalistic theory would seem to
be more in harmony with vital phenomena, and hence the more rational
hypothesis of the two. Besides, the Bible Genesis answers to the logical
necessity of predicating a determinate cause for each and every vital
effect, or each living organism apparently springing from plasmic
conditions or mere structureless matter. Whenever the seeds of plants or
trees are actually planted or sown in the earth, this logical necessity
rests on an induction impregnably laid in cause and effect; while the
materialistic dogma, _nihil ex nihilo_, would necessitate a like induction
wherever seed is not sown. In either case the change that ensues is
manifestly due to vital properties, whether the same be inhering in the
seed, or in necessary environing conditions. And the vital processes are