The People's Common Sense Medical Adviser in Plain English

is known to be so generally indispensable to the organization of life, we may fairly infer that it is a universal necessity. Investigations with the microscope have destroyed the hypothesis of "spontaneous generation." These show us that even the minutest living forms are derived from a parent organization.

GENERATION. So long as the vital principle remains in the sperm-cell, it lies dormant. That part of the cell which contains this principle is called the spermatozoön, which consists of a flattened body, having a long appendage tapering to the finest point. If it be remembered that a line is the one-twelfth part of an inch in length, some idea may be formed of the extreme minuteness of the body of a human spermatozoön, when we state that it is from 1/800 to 1/600 part of a line, and the filiform tail 1/50 of a line, in length. This life-atom, which can be discerned only with a powerful magnifying glass, is perfectly transparent, and moves about by executing a vibratile motion with