168 'DESCENT OF MAN' — EXPRESSION. [1872. 



C. Darwin to A. R. Wallace, 



Down, August 28, 1872. 



My DEAR WALLACE, — I have at last finished the gigantic 

 job of reading Dr. Bastian's book,* and have been deeply 

 interested by it. You wished to hear my impression, but it 

 is not worth sending. 



He seems to me an extremely able man, as, indeed, I 

 thought when I read his first essay. His general argument 

 in favour of Archebiosist is wonderfully strong, though I 

 cannot think much of some few of his arguments. The result 

 is that I am bewildered and astonished by his statements, but 

 am not convinced, though, on the whole, it seems to me pro- 

 bable that Archebiosis is true. I am not convinced, partly 

 I think owing to the deductive cast of much of his reasoning ; 

 and I know not why, but I never feel convinced by deduction, 

 even in the case of H. Spencer's writings. If Dr. Bastian's 

 book had been turned upside down, and he had begun with 

 the various cases of Heterogenesis, and then gone on to 

 organic, and afterwards to saline solutions, and had then given 

 his general arguments, I should have been, I believe, much 

 more influenced. I suspect, however, that my chief difficulty 

 is the effect of old convictions being stereotyped on my brain. 

 I must have more evidence that germs, or the minutest frag- 

 ments of the lowest forms, are always killed by 2 1 2° of Fahr. 

 Perhaps the mere reiteration of the statements given by 

 Dr. Bastian [of] other men, whose judgment I respect, and who 

 have worked long on the lower organisms, would suffice to 

 convince me. Here is a fine confession of intellectual weak- 

 ness ; but what an inexplicable frame of mind is that of 

 belief! 



As for Rotifers and Tardigrades being spontaneously gener- 



* 1 



The Beginnings of Life.' H. Generation. For the distinction 

 C. Bastian, 1872. between Archebiosis and Hetero- 



t That is to say, Spontaneous genesis, see Bastian, chapter vi. 



