280 ON SPONTANEOUS GENERATION. 



few days near the clear blue waters of the Horicon, I pro- 

 ceeded to Boston in order to spend a few days near Dr. Har- 

 ris. I knew that from an American I could expect nothing 

 but candour and kindness, for it is the grand characteristic of 

 the nation. But much as I had expected, what I met with 

 far exceeded my expectations. It would take up too much 

 space, were I to enter into a detail of all the claims that Dr. 

 Harris has on my esteem and gratitude ; but I cannot let an 

 opportunity pass by without testifying to his unostentatious 

 kindness and liberality. Cabinets, books, and manuscripts, 

 were all thrown open to me. His collections, entomological 

 books, &c., were in two rooms in the college buildings. A 

 duplicate key given to me, enabled me to gain access at 

 any hour. But enough. May the day never come when I 

 shall cease with grateful heart to honor and esteem him. 

 Long may he live the first trans-atlantic Entomologist ! 



(To he continued.) 



Art. IV. — Refnarks on the Theory of Spontaneous Generation. 

 By Mr. J. B. Bladon. 



In your January number. Dr. Weissenbom endeavours to 

 argue from the Flora of the snow formation, the possibility 

 of spontaneous generation ; but as it often happens with 

 controversies upon cause and effect, the same fact may be 

 wrested to support both sides of the question. He assumes a 

 spontaneous origin to the plants of the snow formations, 

 without assigning any reason whatever for it. We know 

 that animal life can exist when the body is not only exposed 

 to cold far below the freezing point, but some of the cold- 

 blooded invertehrata of the arctic regions, may be frozen, 

 thawed, and re-frozen, several times successively, and yet 

 without life becoming extinct. Surely he does not mean to 

 intimate that the cold and barren state of those places is 

 incompatible with animal or vegetable reproduction ; but 

 that it still possesses vigour sufficient to produce the vital 

 principle of vegetable organisms. It is well known that 

 there are vegetable organisms peculiar to water in its fluid 

 state, without contact with any earthy substance whatever ; 

 and that also there are others peculiar to places where the 

 atmosphere is fully charged with it in the state of vapour, 



