The Beginning and End of Life 385 



well as by the admiration he excited amongst his followers 

 and disciples. The interest thus forcibly aroused has never 

 been allowed to drop, and it has been recently intensified by 

 the writings of Professor Weismann of Freiburg, upon whom 

 the mantle of Darwin is declared to have fallen by not a 

 few admirers. Strange to say, the subject about which the 

 Freiburg Professor has aroused men's minds of late is mainly 

 the very same as that about which our own Hunterian Pro- 

 fessor discoursed so learnedly some forty years ago. A great 

 injustice has been unwittingly committed by those amongst 

 us who, while lauding or criticising Professor Weismann, 

 have failed to make any reference to the work of their aged 

 and illustrious copatriot,^ who in many respects actually 

 anticipated the ideas of the Freiburg Professor himself. 

 The theories of Professor Weismann, which are now the 

 subject of such earnest discussion amongst our leading men 

 of science, deal especially with what concerns both the 

 beginning and the end of life. Although they do not mainly 

 refer to human life and death, yet the progress of science is 

 continually making more and more evident the close relation- 

 ship which exists between our own life and the lives of our 

 humbler fellow-creatures — even the very humblest of them. 

 Attention has also become increasingly concentrated upon 

 the processes by which each individual animal or plant is 

 developed from its germ. To this study was devoted the 

 brilliant but far too brief career of the lamented Francis 

 Balfour, of whom it is difficult to say whether he was more 

 esteemed for his scientific knowledge or beloved for his most 

 attractive personal qualities. Investigations concerning de- 

 velopment and reproduction have been found to be excep- 

 tionally profitable scientifically, so that more varied lines of 

 inquiry have converged upon that mystery of mysteries. 



^ See his work on Pariheiiogenesis. Van Voorst, 1848. 

 VOL. II. 2 B 



