Oct. 24, 1884.] 



• KNOV\ALEDGE 



349 



somewhat incoherent grounds that the work was written when the 

 writer was but temporarily engaged in liis calling ; that neither 

 leisure nor learning properly so called has been brought to bear 

 upon it ; that the life experience of its writer has been mainly gained 

 in another and far different sphere — viz., in a department of the 

 legal world ; and to a consequent lack of sufficient knowledge of 

 natural history and other branches of learning and research ; " nor 

 do I " put forward my ignorance of the subject on which I treat as 

 a reason why I should be tenderly dealt with." 



The words in the jDreface, "when the 'writer was but tempo- 

 r.arily engaged in his calling," refer to the time when the work was 

 uritten ; the statements, respectively, that " neither learning nor 

 leisure (properly so-called) has been brought to bear upon it, and that 

 the life-experience of its writer has been mainly gained in another 

 and far different sphere," &c., are, inter alia, adduced as reasons for 

 the admission made that the writer " lacked sufficient knowledge of 

 natural history and other branches of learning and research neces- 

 sarily involved in his >vide-ranging subject," to deal thereioith in a 

 comparatively e^vhaustive manner. 



I refer the critic to the preface, and ask his candid acknow- 

 ledgment whether this my construction of it is not a fair one. 



I do not put forward my " ignorance of the subject " as a reason 

 why the book should be tenderly dealt with, but, rather, some of 

 the various circumstances which were unfavourable for enabling 

 me to treat the matter fully, and as an entirety ; and, by-the-bye, 

 I do not ask for tenderness, the words are " in the hope that it will 

 meet with a fair, and favourable, and even a liind reception. 



Lest yoiu- readers should be misled by what the critic styles my 

 " polytheistic exordium," I would merely say that the first chapter 

 of the work states that "the teaching of revelation respecting God 

 is that there are tliree persons, all equal, save in point of age, who, 

 together form the God-head — i.e., the Christian triune God, the 

 Father, Son, and Holy Spirit," and that such first chapter also 

 gives in evidence of such statements various texts of Scripture. 



Respecting the criticism of the meaning of the word " day," I still 

 adhere to my opinion that each day was an Age, and each Age was 

 100,000 years in duration. 



I may hereafter, in another work, present my views with respect 

 to the words, "the evening and the morning were the first (and 

 each succeeding) day;" but I do not calmly put Exodus xx. — 8, 9, 

 10, and 11 verses out of sight altogether ; on the contrary, I, in 

 effect, affirm in Chapter ii. that the seventh day referred to in 

 Exodus was sanctified as a memorial time of rest from usual labour, 

 exercise, and occupation. 



The critic then (professing to give a sequence of my factn) asserts 

 that the female deitj , by a corporeal act, originated the compound 

 elements of nature, which are five in number (and he names them), 

 and states that " then the wind, salt, &c., began moving and 

 rotating. Globules were poised in space." Now, I submit with 

 all confidence and firmness that such assertions are inaccurate in 

 an eminent degree ; such statements present a garbled distortion 

 of facts, and tend to pervert the judgment of the public respecting 

 the book, and to injuriously affect the reputation of the author 

 of it. 



The work really states that the corporeal act was wrought con- 

 jointly by God the Holy Spirit and God the Son, and that its result 

 was the poising in space of a number of globules, &c. (or the 

 origination of the compound elements of nature), and that these 

 compound elements or these globules (see p. 23) immediately began 

 to move rotatorily and in circles from left to right, or west to 

 east, &c. 



The air, at first thin, the critic says, became thick ; the book says, 

 after a lengthy period, gradually the temperature rose from the 

 intense coldness which first prevailed, and the air became more 

 dense, and that still 61/ steps advancing in its density it reached its 

 ultimate degree of thick unctuous vapour. 



The critic then says '"the sea began to be developed, and that 

 by virtue of the generating elements composing it, and those of 

 air being in constant and two-fold motion, there gradually started 

 into being multitudes of animalculse, and microscopic life." The 

 book gives the gradual natural steps by which the unctuous vapour 

 iiradually formed the seas, and then (in the fifth chapter), it states 

 that " immediately the sea began to be developed, or soon after, by 

 virtue," &c. 



Then with an audacity most unbecoming his official capacity, the 

 critic states, " With this start, the transition to shell-fish, and 

 many marine creattu*es. . . . who attained unto immense size" 

 presents no difficulty at all, or, at all events, as little as the method 

 in which their deposits formed at last by far the greater portion 

 of the earliest earth-crust, namely, that composed of chalk and 

 lime ; whilst the book says, " As the sea gradually further formed, 

 larger and hiijher creatures in natural and gradiiated order, stich as 

 zoophiles, mollusca, and radiata, became evolved," and that " hefore 

 the close of the first era, there doubtless became evolved many 



marine creatures (now extinct) who attained unto immense size, 

 and that in course of many thousands of years the deposits o 

 such marine living creatures, and the remains of such as died 

 would constitute a vast amottnt of matter, which, decomposing and 

 disintegrating would go to form at last by far the greater portion 

 of the earliest earth-crust," lic. 



The critic then makes contemptuous reference to the assumption 

 that the icthyosauri, plesiosauri, and megatheria existed during the 

 third age. I submit that I have endeavoured to give a sequen- 

 tiality of reasoning in the work in evidence of my contention. 



The critic's equally supercilious reference to the alleged mode by 

 which the air was formed does not produce in me any change of 

 opinion respecting it ; in fact, I am convinced that I am right. 

 I notice, however, that he omits a by no means unimportant point 

 respecting the component globules or vesicles, viz., their form. 

 The book states their form was twofold — spherical and spheroidal. 



The critic then proceeds to make the erroneous statement or 

 implication that, according to the author, the sparrow and redpole 

 were created on the third day (or era), with certain other species 

 of birds which he names. The book makes no such statement ; 

 but says, in guarded language, that there existed during, or at the 

 end of such age, the first species of the penguin tribe, the .first 

 species of the petrel genus, the fir.st species of the crane tribe (or 

 ancient Diuorni), and the first species of small aerial birds in- 

 cluded in the iusectivora genus, ending in the ultimate forms of 

 sparrow and redpole in the fifth species, &c. The first species of 

 the small aerial birds is described in the seventh chapter as being 

 white of two varying shades, like the binary-coloured ^earth-crust 

 of the period (the author submits that such species was the 

 plovers) . 



If the critic had carefully read and well considered the work, he 

 would have discovered that only one species (of five) is declared to 

 have been evolved in one age ; therefore, the sparrow and redpole 

 (being the fi.fth species of the small atirial birds) would not be 

 evolved until the present (or seventh) age. 



Pursuing his disdainful way, the critic next sceptically questions 

 the sequence or locality (or both) of the formation of the primordial 

 metals of the three several genera, and, instead of giving reasons 

 for his scepticism, he emphasises the metal, brass, by adding three 

 points of exclamation thereafter, by way of showing, as I assume, 

 and that bombastically, his own superior intelligence to that of the 

 writer. 



The writer, nevertheless, is not shaken in his views respecting 

 the metals, which, he submits to the public, he has put forth clearly 

 and in well-defined language in his treatise. 



Then the critic, towards the close of his review, makes a curt and 

 scornful allusion to the natural evolution or generation of Adam 

 solely by a female gorilla, and also to that of Eve as set forth by 

 the ^vriter. The writer, however, notwithstanding such despisal 

 thrown upon his views concerning such evolution, begs to say that 

 he holds them as firmly as before, because he is convinced that they 

 are really trne, distasteful and humiliating as they may appeamO'W, 

 after thousands of years, to many of the excellent, the refined, and 

 highly cultivated of our race. 



After indulging in some general scurrilous and vulgar abuse, the 

 critic ends by proffering the writer certain gratuitous advice, and 

 refers him to JIatt. xv., 1-i. Having been obliged to make this 

 letter inconveniently long, the writer does not propose to animadvert 

 upon such abuse ; and, with respect to the advice, as it is of no 

 service to him, the writer declines to take it, but suggests to the 

 critic that, as in its appropriateness it rightly belongs, or is more 

 suitable, to him, that he should keep it, and may it do him good. 



J. R. Smith. 



[An apology may seem necessary for occupying so much space 

 with the above letter ; but I am moved to insert it by two con- 

 siderations. The first is the unfairness of condemning any man 

 unheard. The second, the opportunitj- it affords the readers of the 

 original review of judging for themselves, in the light of Mr. 

 Smith's verbal emendations, how far the severity of his critic was 

 justified. Mr. S. seems to consider that he proves an assertion by 

 reiterating it. His wonder that the reviewer put three notes of 

 admiration after brass as a "primordial metal," may possibly 

 diminish when he learns that brass is an artificial alloy formed of 

 copper and zinc by human hands, and that it never occurs in a 

 native state. The oily and watery globules, the wind and salt, &c., 

 may safely be left to speak for themselves. — Ed.] 



FUNGOID GROWTH ON DEAD FLY.— THE ECLIPSE. 



[1475] — Probably the fly, about which " St. John " wants an 

 explanation (Letter 1419), died from an attack of its fungoid 

 parasite, Empusa muscat. 



The insect in question would likely be glued to the ceiling by a 



