342. It must now be questioned whether these creatures come from eggs conveyed to such places by the air or by rain or by water percolating up through the soil, or whether they come from the fluids and foul odors themselves there. The notion that such noxious vermin and insects as those we have mentioned above are hatched from eggs conveyed to these places, or from eggs buried in the ground from the beginning of creation, is one all experience does not support, since larvae are found in tiny seeds, in the kernels of nuts, in pieces of wood, in stones, even emerging from leaves; and on plants and in them we find mites and grubs that accord with them. The notion is also not supported by our observation of flies, which in summer appear to arise in such great abundance in houses, fields and forests from no egg-like substance. It is likewise not supported by those pests which destroy meadows and pastures, and which in some warm areas fill and infest the air, not to mention those which invisibly swim or fly in fetid waters, in wines gone sour, and in pestilential air. These observations of experience support those people who say that the odors, stenches and exhalations emitted from plants, soils, and stagnant waters are themselves what give to such creatures also their beginnings. The fact that after these creatures have come into being they are reproduced either by eggs or by live births does not take away their immediate origins, since every animal receives with its little organs also reproductive organs and the means of procreating (a subject we take up below in no. 347). In support of this conclusion is an observation of experience previously unknown, that the same phenomena exist also in the hells.