APPENDIX. 



439 



disease, the reader is referred to a little work by Dr. Morris, 

 entitled " Germinal Matter, and the Contact Theory : an 

 Essay on the Morbid Poisons, their nature, sources, effects, 

 migrations, and the means of limiting their noxious agency." 

 J. & A. CHURCHILL. 



Dr. Bastiaris Researches on Heterogenesis. 



The experiments recorded by Dr. Bastian in 1870, and the 

 reasonings advanced by him in a series of papers published 

 in " Nature," have been recently examined and criticised. 

 Several organisms have been described by Dr. Bastian which 

 certainly ought not to have been found under the circum- 

 stances related by him. For instance, a piece of vegetable 

 tissue which is probably a portion of bog moss, and penicil- 

 lium in fructification, as well as some wormlike organisms have 

 been figured. Few will be inclined to support the opinion 

 that such bodies were actually formed in the closed vessels 

 as maintained. Dr. Bastian brings forward many arguments 

 in support of his experimental results, which are alto- 

 gether superfluous if the experiments are to be relied upon. 

 The experiments themselves have however been repeated 

 with very great care by Mr. Hartley, who has altogether 

 failed to confirm Dr. Bastian's conclusions. Mr. Hartley's 

 paper is entitled " Experiments concerning the Evolution of 

 Life from Lifeless Matter," and is published in vol. xx of the 

 P roceedmgs of the Royal Society ', December 7,1871. I quite 

 agree with the author in the views he has expressed, and 

 gladly endorse his concluding remarks on the hypothesis of 

 Heterogenesis. "The theory involves the discovery of a 

 new property of matter, the property that certain compounds 

 (undefined nitrogenous particles in the atmosphere) must 

 have of decomposing molecules of other substances with 

 which they are in contact, and building out of their con- 

 stituent atoms substances of a much more complicated 

 nature, without the exertion of external forces ; even beyond 

 this, they must be capable of arranging those compounds 

 into definite forms. In the course of nature complex 

 substances do not increase but simplify their molecular 

 complexity. By oxidation vegetable products are resolved 



2 G 2 



