400 APPENDIX. 



bearing such titles as "The Beginnings of Life"; ''Evolution and 

 the Origin of Life/' &c., have been published in England by a 

 young physician, Dr. Bastian. The same author has also pub- 

 lished a considerable number of articles iu different reviews and 

 journals. The very circumstantial manner in which he describes 

 his experiments, and the tone of assurance with which he ad- 

 vances his conclusions, have produced an immense impression on 

 the English as well as the American public. But what is more 

 serious still, from a practical point of view, is the influence that 

 these writings have exercised on the medical world. He has 

 attacked your works with great vigour, and, although he has 

 made but slight impression on those who know them thoroughly, 

 yet he has succeeded in producing a very great and, I may add, 

 a very pernicious one on others. 



" The state of confusion and uncertainty had come to be so 

 great that, about six months ago, I thought that I should be 

 rendering a service to science, and at the same time performing 

 an act of justice to yourself, in submitting the question to a 

 fresh investigation. Putting into execution an idea which I 

 had entertained for some six years, the details of which were 

 set forth in an article in the British Medical Jourmd, which I 

 had the pleasure of sending you, I have gone over a great deal 

 of the ground on which Dr. Bastian had taken his stand, and, I 

 believe, refuted many of the errors by which the public had 

 been misled. 



" The change which has taken place since then in the tone of 

 the English medical journals is quite remarkable, and I am 

 inclined to think that the general confidence of the public in 

 the exactness of Dr. Bastian^s experiments has been considerably 

 shaken. 



" In taking up these researches again, I have had occasion to 

 refresh my memory by another perusal of your works ; they 

 have revived in me all the admiration which I experienced 

 when I first read them. It is my intention now to pursue 

 these researches until I have dissipated any doubts that may be 



