3o6 



NATURE 



{Feb. 17, 1876 



prive de ses poussi^res flottantes, Des lors je dois appliquer 

 au docteur Bastian ces paroles de mon memoire de 1862, pages 

 70 et 71 : " En presence de ces resultats (resultats que je viens de 

 rappeler et qu'accepte le docteur Bastian), un partisan de la 

 generation spontance veut-il continuer \ soutenir ses opinions ? 

 II le peut encore ; mais alors son raisonnement sera forcement 

 celui-ci : ' II y a dans I'air, dira-t-il, des particules solides, telles 

 que carbonate de chaux, silice, suie, brins de laine, de coton, 

 fecule . . . et a cot^ des corpuscules organises d'une parfaite 

 ressemblance avec les spores des mucidinees ou avec les kystes 

 des infusoires. Eh bien, je prefere placer I'origine des muci- 

 dinees et des infusoires dans les premiers de ces corpuscles, ceux 

 qui sont amorphes, plutot que dans les seconds.'" L'inconse- 

 quence d'un pareil raisonnement ressort d'elle-meme et le pro- 

 gres de mes recherches consiste a y avoir accule les partisans de 

 I'heterogenie. Lisez attentivement I'article precite du docteur 

 Bastian et vous verrez qu'il se resume en effet, dans le 

 raisonnement que je. viens de reproduire. Le docteur Bastian 

 me permettra de placer dans sa bouche ces paroles : — "C'est 

 bien vrai, les experiences de M. Pasteur et celles de M. 

 Tyndall m'ont accule, moi Docteur Bastian, partisan de la 

 generation spontanee, dans cette declaration. Oui, je prefere 

 recourir sans motif serieux, a la croyance a une force residant 

 dans la partie amorphe des poussieres en suspension dans I'air' 

 plutot que de la placer cette force dans la partie organisee 

 formee de corpuscules identiques d' aspect a ceux des germes des 

 organismes des infusions." Parler ainsi n'est-ce pas avouer sa 

 defaite ? 



Quelles sont done ces particules amorphes dont vous invoquez 

 si p:ratuitement I'influence et de quel droit leur attribuez-vous les 

 primum movens de la vie ? Pourquoi, si vous aviez raison, ne le 

 trouverait-on pas c& primum movens dans les particules amorphes 

 ou organisees qui existent a I'etat naturel dans le sang frais, dans 

 I'urine fraiche, dans le jus du i-aisin, quandon expose ces liquides 

 dans Fair pur ? Voulez-vous que vos particules amorphes, douees 

 du primum movens de la vie des infusions, sortent de matieres 



deja alterees, putrides, etc mais, pourquoi seraient-elles 



chariees par I'air sans etre accompagnees des germes et des etres 

 vivants de ces infusions et, s'il en est ainsi, comment ne pas 

 placer \& primum movens de la vie dans ce qui est vivant, plutot 

 que dans ce qui n'a rien des cavacteres apparents de la vie? 



Elle est inattaquable, cette conclusion que j'ai deja formulee : 

 dans I'ciat actuel de la science, V hypothese de la generation spon- 

 tanee est une chimere. Votre bien devoue, 



Paris le 8 Fevrier, 1876 L. Pasteur 



Mr. Sorby on the Evolution of Haemoglobin 

 In th« short notice in Nature (vol. xiii. p. 257) of my paper 

 on the Evolution of Hjemoglobin, in the Quarterly Microscopical 

 Journal, it is said that my conclusions are mamly based on a 

 small difference in the wave-length of the absorption-bands of 

 the spectrum of the red blood of Flanorlns. This is, however, 

 a very small part of the question. The principal results are that 

 hcematin is first met with in the bile of many pulmoniferous 

 molluscs in an abnormal state, quite unfit to serve the purposes 

 of respiration, but easily changed into the normal, which could, 

 and probably does in some cases, perform that function. Then 

 in the blood of Planorbis we have a solution of a hoemoglobin, 

 in which the haematin is combined with an albuminous consti- 

 tuent coagulating at the low temperature of 45" C, and finally 

 we come to the normal haemoglobin existing as red corpscules, con- 

 taining an entirely different albuminous constituent, coagulated at 

 about 65° C. In all these changes in the condition of the sz me 

 fundamental radical, the oxygen carrier becomes of more and 

 more unstable character, and more fitted for the purposes of 

 respiration, as we advance from lower to higher types, as though 

 advantage had been taken of every improvement due to modi- 

 fied chemical or physical constitution. H. C. Sorby 



The Flame of Common Salt 



In answer to a question put by one of your correspondents (p. 

 287), allow me to siate that the origin of the blue flame in question 

 is stiil involved in mystery. Vour correspondent will find every- 

 thing that is known on the subject in a letter addressed to the 

 editor of the Pldlosophical Magazine, by Prof. J. H. Gladstone 

 {t-hil. Mag. 1862, vol. xxiv. p. 417). 



Prof. Schorlemmer and I are at present engaged in a joint 

 investigation, which we hope will throw some light on the origin 



of the flame. We have already obtained interesting results, and 

 observed the flame under circumstances in which it has not been 

 seen before, but we arc as yet entirely unable to say wliat the 

 flame is really due to. Arthur .Sciiuster 



Owens College, Manchester, Feb. 12 



Science at Hasting^s 



Had we here a few more men like Mr. Alex. E. Murray, my 

 paper on "Science at Hastings" would never have been 

 written. But I fail to see in what way he has "vindicated the 

 honour of Hastings." With the exception of one or two sen- 

 tences which require quaUfication, his letter is simply an em- 

 phatic repetition of what I said in the Hastings and St. Leonards 

 News. The substance of my paper may be given in on= of its 

 sentences : " With the exception of occasional debates among 

 the members of the Philosophical Society and the few scientific 

 lectures in the winter programme of the Mechanics' Institution, 

 there is in Hastings no public encouragement or aid to science." 

 As to the Philosophical Society, Mr. Murray admits that, 

 "owing to a variety of circumstances, it is not at present quite 

 so flourishing as we could wish," In point of fact, during the 

 session 1874-75, foi^'" papers were read and a conversazione held. 

 This Society is the only distinctively scientific one in the town, 

 notwithstanding the "multiplicity" of institutions mentioned by 

 Mr. Murray. Popular scientific lectures are occasionally given 

 in connection with various associations for young men ; and the 

 Mechanics' Institution also has a winter lecture session, but un- 

 fortunately the Committee find it very difficult to obtain lecturers, 

 and are fain to eke out their list with musical evenings and 

 readings. The Literary and Scientific Institution has for many 

 years dropped the word "Scientific" from its name, and at 

 present seeks merely to provide for a few of the older inhabi- 

 tants of the town a quiet reading-room supplied with papers, a 

 few reviews and magazines, and a box from Mudie's. Scarcely 

 a new book has been bought for very many years. The meteo- 

 rological instruments which the Institution "formerly possessed " 

 were, with the exception of the barometer, broken long ago, 

 and the barometer has since been sold. At one time — twenty 

 years ago— I was in the habit of taking the observations in the 

 absence of the gentleman whose special business it was ; but it 

 must be at least a dozen years since any observations were syste- 

 matically taken. 



In conclusion, I claim to have fully recognised in my paper all 

 that is being done in Hastings in the interests of science, and I 

 sincerely regret that Mr, Murray has not been able to discover 

 any omission on my part. We have no museum, we have no 

 public library in which there are scientific books recent or nume- 

 rous enough to be of any use to a student, except in a school or 

 two ; we have no Naturalists' or Field Clubs ; with the excep- 

 tion of the Philosophical Society, all the existing institutions in 

 Hastings have practically lost what scientific character they may 

 at one time have possessed ; and the Philosophical Society itself 

 is neither exclusively scientific nor exclusively local in its aims, 1 

 and is unfortunately "not quite so flourishing" as could b« ' 

 wished. Arthur Ransom I 



Hastings, Feb, 5 | 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 



The Variable Star R Leporis.— This highly- 

 coloured star, the variability of which was detected bf 

 Schmidt in 1855, is calculated to be at a maximum on 

 the 28th of the present month. The mean period appears 

 to be about 438 days, 230 days being occupied in passing 

 from minimum to maximum, and 208 days from maximum 

 to minimum. Probably the irregularities of variation 

 which have been suspected are to be mainly attributed to 

 the difficulty attending comparisons of a star of such 

 intensely red colour. With regard to the colour, how- 

 ever, there is something more than a suspicion that it has 

 sensibly diminished in intensity since attention was first 

 directed to it (Hind, 1845, October), We are almost 

 wholly indebted to Schmidt, who makes such excellent 

 use of the favourable astronomical conditions under which 

 he is placed at Athens, for our knowledge of the law ol 

 variation in R Leporis. 



