448 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Let it then he your firm resolve, students of the high-school par 

 excellence, not to attend the lectures simply of one faculty, or of one 

 branch of a faculty. Be true to the principles of auniversitas litera- 

 rum. Over and above the studies special to your future calling, do 

 not fail to acquire as liberal an education as possible. Postpone purely 

 specialist studies to the time when you will not only have to receive, 

 but also to give to produce. Hold in high esteem the ancients in all 

 things wherein they were and still are our teachers. Despise not 

 your less remote predecessors and your contemporaries the world over 

 in matters wherein thev alone are the authorities. 



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THE SPONTANEOUS-GENERATION CONTROVERSY. 



By Rev. W. H. DALLINGER, V. P. R. M. 8. 



IN the present position of biological science in relation to this im- 

 portant and interesting question, any positive results which have 

 a definite bearing on the difficulties of the subject, and point hope- 

 fully to new methods of research, must be warmly welcomed. Prof. 

 Tyndall's beautiful series of experiments " On the Optical Deport- 

 ment of the Atmosphere in Reference to the Phenomena of Putrefac- 

 tion and Infection " are precisely of this class, and will give new 

 impulse and direction to all unbiased labor. It is to be regretted 

 when, in a matter so purely one of rigid science as this is, impas- 

 sioned controversy is suffered to have any place. It fails utterly of 

 its intended purpose, and simply hinders and delays the final issue. 

 There are few but will have admired the animation, courage, and 

 resolution, manifested by Dr. Bastian in the discussion of this ques- 

 tion during the last five years; but those who have been most capa- 

 ble of understanding the method, natm*e, and objects of his experi- 

 ments, and the general drift of his reasoning, are those who most 

 earnestly disavow the perhaps unconscious, but nevertheless too pal- 

 pable, advocacy of a thesis which his writings so freely display. 



Dr. Bastian's position in relation to the origin of minute organic 

 forms has, at the outset, the immense disadvantage of being adverse 

 to the whole analogical teaching of Nature, down to the uttermost 

 depths of minuteness, where our Jcnoicledge is accurate and sound. 

 Wherever science has put down the landmarks of possession, and is 

 not dealing with the disputable territory of hypothesis, it is abso- 

 lutely known that at some period in the cycle of development the 

 lowliest organisms are dependent for their propagation upon what we 

 can only look upon as genetic products. 



Manifestly, then, it must be weighty nay, unequivocal and even 

 irresistible evidence that will induce the philosophical biologist to 



