246 QUARTERLY JOURNAL. 



worms are conveyed into the system from without, and are gene- 

 rated in the ordinary way, ought we not still to adhere to the 

 common notions ; the hot, in the horse is a good example, whose 

 production may illustrate in a general way what takes place in any 

 given instance. 



The second position assumed, is, that production and organiza- 

 tion is the result of an electro-chemical force. To sustain this 

 view of the origination of vitality and of an organized structure, 

 he has recourse to the electrical experiments of Mr. Crosse, in 

 England, under whose eye insects appeared in a saturated solutioi 

 of silicate of potash, (flint dissolved in potash.) The remarks of 

 the author are exceedingly curious, and we think he will say soi 

 himself when he comes to reflect upon them. We transcribe theml 

 from page 141: " In the apparatus, the silicate of potash became^ 

 first turbid, then, of a milky appearance ; round the negative wires 

 of the battery dipped in the fluid, there gathered a quantity of 



GELATINOUS MATTER A PART OF THE PROCESS OF CONSIDERABLE 



IMPORTANCE, CONSIDERING THAT GELATINE IS ONE OF THE PROXIMATE 

 PRINCIPLES, OR FIRST COMPOUNDS OF WHICH ANIMAL BODIES ARE 



FORMED ! !" Silicate of potash turned into gelatine or glue ! This 

 exceeds the expectations of the alchymists of old. The transmu- 

 tation of the baser metals into gold, would not have been half so 

 marvellous and wonderful. Whether the author intended to de- 

 ceive, or lead astray for the purpose of giving plausibility to his 

 doctrine, we cannot tell; certainly, so far as we have learned, none 

 of the philosophers of England have ever gone so far as this, or 

 have given such an interpretation oi Mr. Crosse's experiments. 



We have now reached that part of the work for which all that 

 precedes it, seems to have been preparatory ; and which was required 

 to enable the author to give a plausible exposition of his peculiar 

 views of organic progress on the globe. 



This part is termed " Hypothesis of the development of the ve- 

 getable and animal kingdom." Wc have already anticipated some 

 of the main points of this hypothesis ; still, it is necessary to ob- 

 serve that it is based partly on physiology and partly on geology. 

 Geology is supposed to furnish the following facts, viz : that the 

 older rocks abound in fossils ; they all belong to low types of or- 

 ganization, but they never contain the higher, in virtue of certain 

 changes upon the earth favorable to their production. But let the 

 Vestiges of Creation speak for itself, pages 153-4 : " The whole 



