ZOOLOGY. 399 



ebullition rose into and filled the porcelain tube, and even passed out at the 

 end of the fine tube. The lamp was then removed to arrest the ebullition ; 

 and by degrees the steam was condensed, and the outside air (air of the labo- 

 ratory.) entered to take its place, passing through the red-hot porcelain tube 

 above described. After the liquid had cooled, the flask was hermetically 

 sealed at the neck. 



The other flask was allowed to cool without any connection with the 

 porcelain tube, and the atmospheric air entered freely. When the flask was 

 cooled, it was sealed like the other. 



The two flasks were then placed on the same conditions, exposed to the 

 light and to the ordinary temperature. After ten or twelve days, at the sur- 

 face of the flask containing the ordinary air, vegetation was visible a 

 well characterized mould ; whilst in that which had received the heated air, 

 the liquid remained perfectly limpid, and without anything on its surface. 

 After a month, the mould had much increased in the former, while nothing 

 had appeared in the latter, except that the water had slightly lost its clear- 

 ness. After six months (March 4, 1858), the mould remained stationary in 

 the former, while in the other the liquid continued the same, without any 

 trace of mould. The extremities of the two flasks were now broken under 

 mercury. In the case of the one with heated air, considerable mercury was 

 absorbed, but none in the other. The air of the two flasks being analyzed, 

 no oxygen was found in either. The air from the flask with ordinary air 

 contained 13'48 per cent, of carbonic acid; that of the other, in which no 

 mould had formed, 12'43 per cent. The liquid of the flask with ordinary 

 air had a putrid and very disagreeable odor, while the other had none. M. 

 Montague, on examining these liquids, ascertained that the mould devel- 

 oped in the flask with ordinary air was the Penecillium glaucum, which was 

 in full fructification; in the other he found no trace of any vegetable or 

 animal organism. 



The following note, on this subject of spontaneous generation, has also 

 been published by Prof. Dana, of New Haven. 



1. There is a well-known principle in the system of nature that deserves 

 to be considered in this connection. The principle is so fully sustained by 

 all research, both in chemistry and zoology, including the important experi- 

 ments above mentioned, that it may well carry with it great weight, and 

 quiet both apprehension and expectation on this subject. It is this: The 

 forces in life and inorganic nature act in opposite directions, the former 

 upward, the latter dowmcord. 



The vital force, in the organic substances it forms, ascends through vege- 

 table and animal life to an exalted height in the scale of compounds at an 

 extreme remove from saturation with oxygen; inoi'ganic force descends 

 towards the saturated oxide. The former reaches a point which from its 

 A T ery elevation is one of great instability ; the latter tends towards one of per- 

 fect stability. There is hence a counterpart or cyclical relation between the 

 two great lines of action in nature. 



As some readers of these remarks may not be familiar with chemistry, a 

 further word of explanation is added. 



When an element unites with its full allowance of oxygen, as determined 

 by its affinities, it is in a sense saturated with it. Since the attraction of the 

 elements for oxygen is the most universal, and, in general, the strongest in 

 nature, the oxides as a class are the most stable of compounds; the rocks, 

 the earth's foundations, are made of them. But evanescence and unceasing 



