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THE "LITTLE BODIES" 97

Permian strata, in Carboniferous limestone and even as
low as the Upper Devonian strata? (See Ann. des Sciences
Nat. (Bot.), i8g6, II, pp. 275-349-) Is it conceivable that
with mere lineal descent such variable living things could
retain the same primitive forms through all these changing
ages? Is it not far simpler and more probable to suppose,
especially in the light of the experimental evidence now
adduced, that instead of having to do with unbroken
descent from ancestors through these aeons of time, as
Darwin taught, and is commonly believed, we have to do,
in the case of Bacteria and their allies, with successive new
births of such organisms throughout these ages as prim-
ordial forms of life, compelled by their different but
constantly recurring molecular constitutions to take such
and such recurring forms and properties, just as would be
the case with successive new births of different kinds of
crystals?"
We have introduced this quotation merely to show the
confirmation by Bastian of Bechamp's discovery of living
elements in chalk and limestone, and must leave to geolo-
gists to determine whether infiltration or other extraneous
sources do or do not account for the phenomena. If they
do not, we might be driven to believe in Professor Bastian's
explanation of successively recurring new births of
chemical origin, were it not for Professor Bechamp's
elucidation of all organised beings taking their rise from
the microzymas, which we may identify with what are now
known as microsomes when found in cells, whether
animal or vegetable. Thus we see that Bechamp's teaching
can explain appearances which, without it, can only be
accounted for by spontaneous generation, as shown by
Professor Bastian. Whether Bechamp were correct in his
belief that the microzymas in chalk are the living remains
of dead beings of long past ages is not a point that we care
to elaborate. We wish to leave the subject of chalk to
those qualified to deal with it and have only touched on
it here because these initial observations of Professor
Bechamp's were what led to his views of the cell, since