Dr. Charlton Bastian, of London, Eng., has long been a prominent advocate of this theory of continuous spontaneous generation.  Laughed down and considered defeated by the leading scientific minds of a generation ago, he still pluckily kept at work, and his recent books were like bombshells in the orthodox scientific camp.  He has taken more than five thousand photo-micrographs, all showing most startling facts in connection with the origin of living forms from the inorganic.  He claims that the microscope reveals the development in a previously clear liquid of very minute black spots, which gradually enlarge and transform into bacteria—­living forms of a very low order.  Prof.  Burke, of Cambridge, Eng., has demonstrated that he may produce in sterilized boullion, subjected to the action of sterilized radium chloride, minute living bodies which manifest growth and subdivision.  Science is being gradually forced to the conclusion that living forms are still arising in the world by natural processes, which is not at all remarkable when one remembers that natural law is uniform and continuous.  These recent discoveries go to swell the already large list of modern scientific ideas which correspond with the centuries-old Yogi teachings.  When the Occult explanation that there is Life in everything, inorganic as well as organic, and that evolution is constant, is heard, then may we see that these experiments simply prove that the forms of life may be changed and developed—­not that Life may be “created.”

The chemical and mineral world furnish us with many instances of the growth and development of forms closely resembling the forms of the vegetable world.  What is known as “metallic vegetation,” as shown in the “lead tree,” gives us an interesting example of this phenomenon.  The experiment is performed by placing in a wide-necked bottle a clear acidulated solution of acetate of lead.  The bottle is corked, a piece of copper wire being fastened to the cork, from which wire is suspended a piece of zinc, the latter hanging as nearly as possible in the center of the lead solution.  When the bottle is corked the copper wire immediately begins to surround itself with a growth of metallic lead resembling fine moss.  From this moss spring branches and limbs, which in turn manifest a growth similar to foliage, until at last a miniature bush or tree is formed.  Similar “metallic vegetation” may be produced by other metallic solutions.

All of you have noticed how crystals of frost form on window panes in shapes of leaves, branches, foliage, flowers, blossoms, etc.  Saltpeter when subjected to the effect of polarized light assumes forms closely resembling the forms of the orchid.  Nature is full of these resemblances.