Page:The Harveian oration (electronic resource) - Royal College of Physicians, 1881 (IA b20411911).pdf/33

 has been enunciated by which our origin, as we meet here this day, can be presumed to be derived from an anthropoid ape; no lapse of time can suffice to trace the human form divine, back to some primeval mollusc, or find its beginnings in the existence of an infusorial animalcule. Surely no one imagines that, in the recent revelations of the microscope, we can hope to search successfully for the first germs of life on our planet?

In a totally different direction, these minutest organisms have come to hold a very important position in the view of the real student of Nature in the present day. We must pass on mainly to their pathological aspect, though not losing sight of their physiological importance. I have already referred to the vexed question, which so long occupied the attention and stirred the antagonism of microscopical observers. Whether it has yet been finally settled, or is now only at rest while the opposing forces are preparing for a fresh encounter, I know not. The question was simply whether life could spring out of inert matter which had itself once attained to any of the functions of life, or had been at any time indirectly associated with some living organism. Could it, in its separate state, retain such a degree of vitality that life of the lowest form could spring out of its disintegration? Was it possible that such matter could, by its own molecular changes, give rise to