1864. ( 
NOTES AND CORRESPONDENCE. 
Recent Contributions to Natural History and Ethnology in France.—1. Pas- 
teur on Ferments; 2%. Tremaux on the White and Black Races in 
Africa; 3. Lartet and Christy on Pre-historic Human Remains. 
By 
Th. Lacaze Duthiers (Professeur 4 l Ecole normale sup. de Paris). 
At the time when Lamarck wrote, 
it was still possible to believe in 
spontaneous generation; and, in- 
deed, it was easy to justify such a 
theory by a reference to facts then 
unexplained, and otherwise inexpli- 
cable. But since then, further light 
has been thrown upon a whole 
series of living forms, whose origin 
and development had before been 
regarded as insoluble problems. 
The advocates of the theory of 
generation without parents, or ‘‘ he- 
terogenesis,” as it is termed, rapidly 
decreased in number, owing to the 
difficulty they found in sustaining 
their opinions, and a period seemed 
to have arrived when such inquiries 
had attained a degree of precision 
which excluded the possibility of a 
revival of this old world controversy. 
Nevertheless, M. Pouchet, of 
Rouen, doubtless unconvinced by 
the most recent discoveries which 
had thrown such light upon the 
mystery of generation amongst the 
lower animals, some years since 
presented to the Academy of 
Sciences a number of detailed facts 
which, he believed, demonstrated 
satisfactorily the production of 
microscopic organisms without 
parents. ‘This communication led to 
a controversy, and the Academy of 
Sciences adopted the question as 
the subject for one of its prizes, and 
finally awarded the distinction to 
an eminent chemist, M. Pasteur, 
whose labours clearly exhibited the 
errors into which M. Pouchet had 
fallen. Still the naturalist of Rouen 
does not acknowledge himself van- 
quished. Far from this, he is 
incessantly attacking M. Pasteur; 
with him have allied themselves 
MM. Jolly and Musset, naturalists 
holding similar views, and the com- 
bination of these three observers 
necessarily gives weight to the op- 
position raised against the decision 
of the committee which had already 
judged the whole question. 
In the interests of science, and 
for the dignity of the Academy of 
which he is now a member, M, 
Pasteur has requested that a com- 
mission should be appointed with 
a view of witnessing a series of com- 
parative experiments to be institu- 
ted by his adversaries and himself, 
and the decision of the judges should 
finally dispose of the controversy. 
The challenge was frankly and dis- 
tinctly given ; it was accepted in the 
same spirit by his opponents; and 
each party was to repeat its experi- 
ments before the committee in con- 
firmation of its views. 
The time arrived, when MM. 
Pouchet,Jolly, and Musset requested 
an adjournment, fearing that the 
changes of temperature in the 
spring might cause the failure of 
their so-called physiological experi- 
ments. The delay has been granted, 
and the commission will not meet 
until the 19th of June of the pre- 
sent year. As we may wellimagine, 
M. Pasteur has not failed to draw 
attention to the fact that he was 
ready at any time, and at the call 
of the Academy, for with a stove 
