Although the existence of meteoric Infusoria is more than doubtful, it can
not be denied that, in the same manner as the pollen of the flowers of the
pine is observed every year to fall from the atmosphere, minute infusorial
animalcules may likewise be retained for a time in the strata of the air,
after having been passively borne up by currents of aqueous vapor.*
[footnote] *Ehrenberg, op. cit., s. xiv., p. 122 and 403. The rapid
multiplication of microscopic organisms is, in the case of some (as, for
instance, in wheat-eels, wheel-animals, and water-bears or tardigrade
animalcules), accompanied by a remarkable tenacity of life. They have been
seen to come to life from a state of apparent death after being dried for
twenty-eight days in a vacuum with chloride of line and sulphuric acid, and
after being exposed to a heat of 248 degrees. See the beautiful experiments
of Doyere, in 'Mem. sur les Tardigrades et sur leur propriete de revenir a
la vie', 1842, p. 119, 129, 131, 133. Compare, also, Ehrenberg, s. 492-496,
on the revival of animalcules that had been dried during a space of many
years.
This circumstance merits serious attention in reconsidering the old
discussion respecting 'spontaneous generation',* and the
p 346
more so, as Ehrenberg, as I have already remarked, has discovered that the
nebulous dust or sand which mariners often encounter in the vicinity of the
Cape Verd Islands, and even at a distance of 380 geographical miles from the
African shore, contains the remains of eighteen species of silicious-shelled
polygastric animalcules.
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