58 PROCEEDIXGS OF THE 



" Draciiuculus or Guine:i-\vorin " was published in our 'Transac- 

 tions,' and two years later, his "Monograph on Anguillulidte" 

 appeared in the same series. Shortly before Dr. Bastian's death, 

 the writer happened to congratulate him on the continued 

 appreciation of his "Monograph," as shown hy the demand for it, 

 but found it jarred upon the author, for, as he "said, he produced 

 that when he ' was a callow student,' but the works of his maturer 

 vears were neglected or derided. 



In 1867 he became Professor of Pathology in University 

 College, G.>wer S reet, and Assistant Physician to University Col- 

 lege Hospital, becoming later full Physician, retiring iu 1897. 

 In 1868 he became associated with the Hospital for the Paralysed 

 and Epilei)tic in Queen Squnre, retaining that connection till 

 1912. His professional career w^as that of neurologist, and during 

 the middle portion of his life he was absorbed in that study, on 

 which he published many works of great value. In 1872 he had 

 produced a work in two volumes entitled ' The Beginnings of 

 Life,' in which he maintained that life arose in sterilized flasks 

 containing nutrient solutions. These volumes were reviewed by 

 Dr. A. E. AVallace in ' Nature ' and led to a long controversy in 

 which Huxley, Burdon Sanderson and others took part. During 

 the last few years he resumed the study of these phenomena, and 

 brought out several small volumes, maintaining his doctrine, 

 which were illustrated by half-tone blocks from his own photo- 

 graphs of his flask-cultures. 



The following paragraph admirably sums up the facts : — 

 " Bastian's views were not accepted by the scientific world. Still, 

 his experiments showed that some scientific beliefs of his 

 adversaries were not true ; it was claimed that boiling would kill 

 all germs, and that if organisms appeared in Bastian's flasks after 

 boiling, it was due to faulty methods of technique ; but it was 

 subsequently found by Pasteur that desiccated germs in the form 

 of spores could resist boiling. Moreover, Bastian showed that 

 germs can exist in the living body, which we now know to be 

 true ; although the inference that they arose by spontaneous 

 generation or by heterogenesis is both unnecessai'y and unlikely. 

 Dr. Bastian always, however, held an impregnable position when 

 he maintained that living matter must at one lime have originated 

 on the earth from non-living matter, and there is no logical 

 reason why this process should not be continuing."' (Proc. E. vSoc. 

 B. 89. p. x'xii.) 



Dr. Bastinn was elected a Fellow of the Eoyal Society so far 

 back as 1868 ; iu June 191o, he was awarded a Civil List Pension 

 for his eminent services to medical science. [B. D. J.] 



Hexhy Eeles Dresseh came of an old Yorksliire family settled 

 in the North Eiding for nearly three centuries, and was born on 

 May 9th, 1838, at the Thirsk Bank, of which his grandfather 

 wiis the founder. His fatlier. being a younger son, commenced 

 life in London as a Baltic timber merchant, and this led to 



