1872.] Notices of Books. 497 
71,000,000,000,000 similar particles. Moreover, Dr. Sanderson 
has shown, with great probability, that the germinal matter of 
bacteria may be imported simply by contact of a glass surface 
which has not been superheated. We cannot but conclude that 
the investigation on this particular point is so beset with diff- 
culties and sources of error that careful repetition and recon- 
sideration of the experiments are necessary. And then remains 
the dilemma—either the doctrine of Archebiosis is true, or else 
living matter is occasionally more able to resist destructive 
influences than we should, from our own experience, think 
probable. 
A comparatively small portion of Dr. Bastian’s book is devoted 
to the consideration of the phenomena of fermentation. There 
is, however, a very vehement opposition to the views of Pasteur. 
The changes which the author characterises as fermentations 
would, in very many instances, be excluded from such a definition 
by workers in this field of enquiry. Is it admitted that the 
change of cyanogen into oxamide by hydrochloric acid, and the 
decomposition of tartaric acid by heat into carbonic acid, water, 
and pyrogallic acid, come under the category of fermentations ? 
We believe it wrong to ascribe to Liebig the exclusive view that 
dead organic matter is the determining cause of fermentations— 
of course understanding the so-called catalytic changes. Cer- 
tainly, in case of alcoholic fermentation, Liebig recognises the 
determinative agency of the living yeast-plant. The latest ex- 
ponent of this physical theory, M. Fremy, has been constrained 
to adopt a hypothesis which gives a sort of half-life to the deter- 
mining agencies of fermentations. M. Fremy classes the 
organic materials which induce them as ‘‘ hémi-organisés.” 
We rather think, however, that a perusal of the recent ‘‘ Comptes 
Rendus ” will tend to the conclusion that the triumph of the con- 
troversy remains with M. Pasteur. 
Taking all the evidence adduced by the author, we cannot 
accept the dogma of the origination of living beings from dead 
organic matter as proved. Still more cogent reasons must be 
advanced before we can conclude that the same lower organisms 
which we see multiplying, by conversion of surrounding materials 
into their own substance, and transmission out of their own 
protoplasm of a countless progeny, are also formed out of lifeless 
matter. We cannot yet discard the axiom ‘‘ Nihil frustra.” 
The greater part of the second volume of Dr. Bastian’s work 
is devoted to another phase of the enquiry, and the observations 
contain many points of interest and value to naturalists. The 
author, having satisfied himself of the truth of Archebiosis, 
proceeds to consider the process of Heterogenesis. This has 
usually been confounded with the former hypothesis, but the 
author defines it as the process whereby “‘ the matter of already 
existing living things gives birth to other living units wholly 
different from themselves, and having no tendency to assume or 
VOL. I. (N.S.) 3 
