it began to move with voluntary motion
This constitutes something of a misreading of the kinds of experiments Erasmus Darwin recounts in the first of his Additional Notes --
"Spontaneous Vitality of Microscopic Animals" -- appended to The Temple of Nature. Probably
Mary Shelley is taking
figuratively, as a kind of macaroni, the literal
meaning of "vermicelli," tiny worms -- what Darwin calls "microscopic
animalcules." Still, although she humorously exaggerates the kind of
spontaneous generation that drew scientific speculation in the early years
of the nineteenth century, it is important to recognize how seriously such
experiments were taken. Here, for instance, is the initial sentence of
Darwin's "Conclusion":
{8} There is therefore no absurdity in believing that the
most simple animals and vegetables may be produced by the congress of the
parts of decomposing organic matter, without what can properly be termed
generation, as the genus did not previously exist; which accounts for the
endless varieties, as well as for the immense numbers of microscopic
animals.
Percy Bysshe Shelley also cites
Erasmus Darwin in the first sentence of
his Preface to the 1818 edition.
