SKETCH OF DR. H. C. BASTIAN. 109 



increasing attention of scientific men, but has been puslied forward 

 by an unprecedented refinement of experimental investigation. The 

 researches recently carried out may have settled it, or they may not, 

 as further determinations and verifications will show; but, whatever 

 may be the fact on this point, the inquiry has certainly been remark- 

 ably narrowed, and the whole subject placed in a new attitude, which 

 gives better promise of a decisive solution. Dr. Bastian, as is well 

 understood, is a leading representative of the doctrine of the spon- 

 taneous origin of the lowest living forms. He has made an extensive 

 series of delicate and ingenious experiments which, he holds, establish 

 the principle, and which are freely admitted to give the problem a 

 new aspect ; and in his elaborate two-volumed work on the " Begin- 

 nings of Life," and his subsequent volume on " Evolution and the 

 Origin of Life," he has given us the most comprehensive exposition 

 we have of tlie philosophy and jDresent position of this highly interest- 

 ing and important question. 



Henry Charltok Bastian was born at Truro, in Cornwall, April 

 26, 1837. His father, a merchant, died while the son was quite young. 

 He was educated at a private school in Falmouth ; and, when about 

 eighteen years of age, began the study of medicine with an uncle, who 

 was a leading medical man of the town of Falmouth. 



Younor Bastian had already begun to acquire strong tastes for 

 natural-history studies, principally in the direction of botany and 

 marine zoology ; these tastes having been much stimulated and en- 

 couraged by a retired London surgeon, Mr. "VY. P. Cocks, who had for 

 some years energetically devoted himself to the fauna and flora of 

 Falmouth and its neighborhood. Dr. Bastian recognizes a profound 

 indebtedness to this gentleman for his influence in urging him to in- 

 dependent inquiry, inciting him to accept nothing on mere authority. 

 During the three years of young Bastian's apprenticeship to his un- 

 cle, besides preparing for the matriculation examination of the Uni- 

 versity of London, he made a special study of botany, and in 185G 

 published "A Flora of Falmouth and Surrounding Parishes." His 

 educational career was brilliant, and among the numerous university 

 honors which he received may be mentioned the gold medal in 

 botany ; the gold medal in comparative anatomy ; the gold medal in 

 anatomy and physiology ; the gold medal in pathological anatomy; 

 and the gold medal in medical jurisprudence. He took his degree of 

 M. D. in 1866, and became Fellow of the Royal Society in 1868. In 

 1860, Dr. Bastian became Assistant Curator of the Museum of Anat- 

 omy and Pathology under Prof. Sharpey. This oflice was retained 

 for three years. In 1863, principally on account of his liking for 

 cerebral physiology and philosophical subjects generally, he decided 

 to devote himself to the study of insanity, with the view of becoming 

 a consultant in London in this department of medicine. At the end 

 of 1863 he went as assistant medical officer to the newly-opened State 



