248 Appendix. 



L. 



THE HISTORY OF THE DOCTRINE OF SPONTANEOUS 

 GENERATION. 



BY EDWARD S. DUNSTER, M. D. 



In connection with the very able paper of Dr. Lionel Beale, 

 on the nature of life, read at our last meeting, it has occurred to 

 me that a historical sketch of the rise, progress, and present 

 status of the theory of spontaneous generation might be of value. 

 We cannot approach the study of the wonderful mystery we 

 call life without coming, at the very outset, face to face, with the 

 problem of its spontaneous origin ; and we must examine and 

 either set aside or accept it, before we can make headway with 

 the higher questions involved in such study. It is instructive, 

 also, for us as students of science to occasionally survey the past, 

 and observe the slow approaches by which our present knowledge 

 has been attained. It gives us an insight into the character of 

 our work, and compels a higher appreciation of its positiveness, 

 when we see that it has been gathered literally by centuries of 

 patient and cautious investigation, in the process of which error 

 after error has been eliminated ; and thus, steadily though very 

 slowly, there is a nearer approach to ultimate truth. Such a 

 retrospect may well serve to restrain the impatience of those who 

 are disposed to scoff at science by reason of its changing phases, 

 for it is the distinguishing characteristic of true science that she 

 does not let a belief or theory encumber her progress when fuller 

 investigation has shown that such belief or theory is no longer 

 tenable, but she sweeps it away as remorselessly as the whirl- 

 wind crushes down the forest in its advancing track, and rejoices 



