NEW PUBLICATIONS. 245 



the coal deposit, as in the succeeding era, that of the new red 

 sandstone. 



It will be inconsistent with the plan of the Journal to notice in 

 detail the views of the author, as they are successively developed 

 in his sketch of the progress of animals and plants. It is sufficient 

 to say, that, in all that portion of the work which treats of the 

 organic developments in the eras of the old red sandstone, carbo- 

 niferous, and new red systems, and also the oolite, cretaceous, and 

 tertiary formations, we find nothing sufficiently erroneous to call 

 for special remark, except in one or two facts, from which it 

 appears that fish occur in older rocks here than in England. The 

 bearing of this fact upon the author's hypothesis, is, to destroy that 

 coincidence which he supposes may exist between the develop- 

 ment of the foetal brain and that of animal life as it has appeared 

 upon the globe. 



We now pass to the chapter which treats of the origin of the 

 animal tribes, where we find that the author's view of one subject 

 at least, calls for remark. It is the view which he presents of 

 aboriginal or spontaneous production of living bodies, wherein he 

 has assigned a production independent of generation. The first 

 position assumed is, that the lowest types of organization, the in- 

 testinal and visceral worms, (entozoa,) for instance, are produced 

 spontaneously, or at least independently of the ordinary process of 

 generation, within those structures which they inhabit. The neces- 

 sity of resorting theoretically to this mode, is the difficulty of 

 gaining access to these structures by any thing from without ; par- 

 ticularly by ova or eggs, from which insects invariably arise. It 

 is supposed that any minute particle of organized matter, as a flake 

 of lympth, may, under favorable circumstances organize itself; that 

 is, not only maintain an independent vitality, but may create viscera 

 and organs so far as to constitute an individuality. The proximate 

 cause of life in the vestiges of creation is electricity ; hence, with- 

 out the impulsive electrical force, no atom can be vitalized so far 

 as to become a specific being ; from this it follows, that all similar 

 structures must be vitalized by electrical forces also, for, in all ani- 

 mal bodies, are entozoa or worms. We are aware that the subject 

 is one deeply obscure and profound ; and we do not profess to 

 know anything at all of matter, and yet we have a right to inquire, 

 whether, since there are so many cases where it is proved that 



