[footnote] *On the supposed "primitive transformation" of organized or
unorganized matter into plants and animals, see Ehrenberg, in Poggendorf's
'Annalen der Physik', bd. xxiv., s. 1-48, and also his 'Infusionsthierchen',
s. 121, 525, and Joh. Muller, 'Physiologie des Menschen' (4te Aufl., 1844),
bd. i., s. 8-17. It appears to me worthy of notice that one of the early
fathers of the Church, St. Augustine, in treating of the question how
islands may have been covered with new animals and plants after the flood,
shows himself in no way disinclined to adope the view of the so-called
"spontaneous generation" ('generatio aequivoca, spontanea aut primaria').
"If," says he, "animals have not been brought to remote islands by angels,
or perhaps by inhabitants of continents addicted to the chase, they must
have been spontaneously produced upon the earth; although here the question
certainly arises, to what purpose, then, were animals of all kinds assembled
in the ark?" "Si e terra exort" sunt (bestiae) secundum originem primam,
quando dixit Deus" 'Producat terra animam vivam!' multo clarius apparet,
non tam reparandorum animalium causa, quam figurandarum variarum gentium (?)
propter ecclesiae sacramentumin arca fuisse omnia genera, si in insulis quo
transire non possent, multa animalia terra produxit.
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