DERIVATION OF ORGANIC BEINGS. 3 



of vitriol), capable of destroying organic matter by actual 

 contact, without emitting any noxious fumes. Though the 

 air was constantly renewed, no production of living forms 

 took place in the substances under observation, so long as 

 the current of air was subjected to this filtration ; while 

 in comparative experiments, in which the decomposing 

 matter was freely exposed to the atmosphere, without the 

 employment of any such sifting process, the usual develop- 

 ment occurred of the lower forms both of animal and 

 vegetable life.* Without being at all aware of these ex- 

 periments, I made some myself, of a similar nature, and 

 with the same result, by passing the air through red-hot 

 capillary tubes. These I reported in a communication to 

 the Parisian Medical Society, in 1843. Some years after, 

 on the reports current of the discoveries of the late Mr. 

 Crosse, the electrician, I repeated the experiments of Pro- 

 fessor Schultze, with some modifications, as by passing a 

 continuous electrical current of low intensity through the 

 organic matter, but I have obtained always the same 

 negative result. M. Milne Edwards also refers to experi- 

 ments of his own, of the same general nature, and, like 

 Schultze's, entirely opposed to the spontaneous development 

 of organic forms.^ 



Quite lately, however, we have the report of experiments 

 by two independent observers, affording a different result. 

 I refer to those of M. Pouchet, communicated last year to 

 the French Academy ; and those of Dr. Daubeny, which 

 were brought under the notice of the British Association at 

 its late meeting at Oxford. M. Pouchet's experiments 

 consisted in macerating in distilled water a portion of the 

 contents of a flask of hay which had been exposed (dry) to 

 a high temperature in an oven for half-an-hour. The ap- 



* For a detailed notice of these experiments, see the Edinburgh Philo- 

 sophical Journal for July, 1837 ; also, Owen's Compar. Anat. I., 32. 

 f Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, Oct., 1859. 



B 2 



