panspermism

The theory of "panspermism," originating with the Abbé Spallanzani in modern times, and still stoutly advocated by M. Pasteur and some few others, is manifestly defective in this, -- that it goes beyond the inorganic limit in assigning vital units to all matter, even to its elemental principles.

Life: Its True Genesis R. W. Wright

But the specific germ theory advanced in the Bible genesis, is capable of being taken out of the purely speculative region in which "panspermism" landed the great German philosopher.

Life: Its True Genesis R. W. Wright

Aristotle; all those subsequently repeated by Lucretius and Ovid; all the experiments of the renowned Abbé Spallanzani -- all the alleged "fantastic assumptions" of M. Bonnet -- all the theories of "panspermism," by whomsoever advocated -- all the fortuitous aggregations of "_molecules organiques, _" as put forth by the French school of materialists -- all the

Life: Its True Genesis R. W. Wright

Granting that panspermism may rest upon a purely fanciful and unsubstantial basis, it is but fair to concede that its great advocates have honestly attempted to explain by it all the vital phenomena occurring in nature, as M. Pasteur is conclusively attempting to do now.

Life: Its True Genesis R. W. Wright