34 Synthetical Chemistry. . [dan;, . 
earth, and Great Oolite are formations comparable in importance, 
physically and in their faunas, to the Silurian, Devonian, and 
Carboniferous formations, the faunas of which were supposed by 
Professor Huxley to have been possibly contemporaneous in different 
parts of the world. It might be allowable to compare the Oolitic 
Subdivisions named above, with any three minor subdivisions, for 
example, in Upper Silurian strata, but few Geologists will require to 
be reminded that such minor subdivisions are not comparable to 
the three great series, Silurian, Devonian, and Carboniferous, each 
of which contains several groups of formations, some of which 
groups are comparable to the whole Oolite series of Britain taken 
together. 
IVY. SYNTHETICAL CHEMISTRY. 
1 On the Synthesis of Organic Bodies. Lecture at the Royal 
Institution of Great Britain, February 12, 1864. By J. A. 
Wanklyn. 
2. On Recent Chemical Researches in the Royal Institution. 
Lecture at the same Institution, June 3, 1864. By Edward 
Frankland, F.R.S. 
3. On Researches in Organic Chemistry in the Royal Institution. 
Lecture at the same Institution, June 9, 1865. Same Author. 
4, On Animal Chemistry. A Course of Six Lectures at the College 
of Physicians. By William Odling, M.B., F.R.S. Especially 
Lecture 5, reported in the ‘Clinical News’ of September 8 
and September 15, 1865. 
TuerE are hundreds of restless, prying men, who would to-day, as 
did the fabled Titan, steal down the fire from heaven and vivify a 
human form, or failing that, would be content to animate the merest 
speck of organized material. 
This is the aim to which the efforts of mankind, at least of our 
most earnest investigators, are half-consciously tending at the 
present time; but whether or not it will ever come within the 
scope of man’s ability so to mould the elements and imitate the work 
of nature, as to fit them for the reception of that mysterious force 
or combination of forces termed “ life,” it is impossible to say; at 
least, it is not the will of Him who is the author of all force, that 
man should, at this stage of his existence, stand forth as a creator 
even of the humblest living form. To go a step beyond this, and 
affirm that there is this or that in nature which he cannot do, or 
should not attempt; to dogmatize upon the things of which he 
ought to remain ignorant, or whose investigation should be avoided 
as an impious attempt to pry into and interfere with the Creator’s 
