404 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



have vanished, and this year Cambridge, amid universal 

 acclamation, conferred on him her Doctor's degree. The 

 Academy of Sciences in Paris, which had so long per- 

 sistently closed its doors against Mr. Darwin, has also 

 yielded at last ; while sermons, lectures, and published 

 articles plainly show that even the clergy have, to a 

 great extent, become acclimatised to the Darwinian 

 air. My brief reference to Mr. Darwin in the Birming- 

 ham Address was based upon the knowledge that such 

 changes had been accomplished, and were still going on. 

 That the lecture of Professor Virchow can, to any 

 practical extent disturb this progress of public faith 

 in the theory of evolution, I do not believe. That the 

 special lessons of caution which he inculcates were ex- 

 emplified by me, years before his voice was heard upon 

 this subject, has been proved in the foregoing pages. 

 In point of fact, if he had preceded me instead of 

 following me, and if my desire had been to incorporate 

 his wishes in my words, I could not have accomplished 

 this more completely. It is possible, moreover, to draw 

 the coincident lines still further, for most of what he 

 has said about spontaneous generation might have 

 been uttered by me. I share his opinion that the 

 theory of evolution in its complete form involves 

 the passage from matter which we now hold to be 

 inorganic into organised matter ; in other words, 

 involves the assumption that at some period or other of 

 the earth's history there occurred what would be now 

 called ' spontaneous generation.' I agree with him 

 that ' the proofs of it are still wanting.' ' Whoever/ he 

 says, ( recalls to mind the lamentable failure of all the 

 attempts made very recently to discover a decided 

 support for the generatio cequivoca in the lower forms 

 of transition from the inorganic to the organic world 

 will feel it doubly serious to demand that this theory, 



