426 
NATURE 
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[ fed. 24, 1870 
theories ot the molecularists* on the one hand, and of Mr. Darwin 
on the other, once for all established. The three modes of 
theorising indicated, indeed, are not without a tendency to 
approach one another ; and it is precisely their union that would 
secure a definitive triumph for the doctrine of materialism. Mr. 
Huxley, as we have seen—though what he desiderates is an auto- 
plastic living matter that, produced by ordinary chemical processes, 
is yet capable of continuing and developing itself into new and 
higher forms—still begins with the egg. Now, the theory of the 
molecularists would, for its part, remove all the difficulties that, 
for materialism, are involved in this beginning ; i would place 
protoplasm undeniably at length on a merely chemical level ; and 
would fairly enable Mr. Darwin, supplemented by such a life-stuff, 
to account by natural means for everything like an idea or thought 
that appears in creation. 
Nothing could be more outspoken and candid than this 
utterance of Mr. Stirling. He evidently believes that such 
doctrines of the “ molecularists ” concerning the new evolu- 
tion of living things will have long to “await the proof” ; but 
we, on the contrary, firmly believe the time to be not far 
distant when this will be as much an accredited dictum 
of science as are the other doctrines of the Correlation 
of the Physical Forces, and of the Correlation of the Vital 
and Physical Forces which have been its necessary pre- 
decessors. We would ask the Transcendentalists, at 
Jeast, to speculate upon the possibility of this. Let them 
learn in the meantime how they may best readjust their 
doctrines, so that when the time comes in which such 
change will be absolutely necessery—if their views are to 
be in accordance with the established truths of science— 
there may be no sudden bewilderment, no feeling as if 
the very ground were being swept from underneath their 
feet. To such a thinker as Mr. Stirling, we should 
imagine the necessary modification of doctrine would not 
prove difficult. For, after all, the acceptation, to the 
fullest extent, of the doctrines concerning Life to which we 
have been alluding, involves, even from the Transcen- 
dentalists, only a somewhat different point of view. So 
long as Matter, and Force or Spirit, are but two aspects of 
a something one and indivisible, there is still room for 
opposite philosophical systems. The old questions may 
be discussed as earnestly as ever by those who have the 
leisure and the taste for such ontological inquiries. And, 
if perchance lured into such discussions, it would often 
be found that he who was most vehemently charged with 
Materialism would, from an ontological point of view, 
prefer to rank himself amongst those who professed the 
principles of a pure Idealism. 
H. CHARLTON BASTIAN 
AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY 
How Crops Grow: A Treatise on the Chemical Composi- 
tion, Structure, and Life of the Plant, for Agricul- 
tural Students. By Samuel W. Johnson, M.A., of 
Yale College, U.S. Revised, with numerous addi- 
tions, and adapted for English use, by A. H. Church 
and W. T. Thiselton Dyer. 1 vol. 8vo., pp. 399. 
(London, 1869.) 
{pees revised edition of an excellent American work 
ought to find its way into the hands of a verynumerous 
class of youths whose future avocations will require a spe- 
cial acquaintance with the phenomena concerned in the 
growth of plants—either naturally or under the influence 
* Mr. Stirling so designates those who believe in the possibility of an 
evolution of living things ; or, in other words, those who believe in the 
possibility of a so-called ‘‘ spontaneous generation.” 
of cultivation—some familiarity with the general struc- 
ture of plants, with the functions of their several organs 
and the nature of the various materials which it is the 
work of vegetation to produce for the food of animals 
and for numerous other purposes. 
It is surprising that in a country where the practice of 
agriculture is one of the chief sources of wealth and 
is, directly or indirectly, the means of employing a vast 
Fig. 1.—Section of cells in a cabbage stem, shewing at @ the union of the 
cell-walls and the intercellular spaces at 4. 
amcunt of capital and labour, very little should have been 
done towards the scientific elucidation of agricultural 
practice so as to ensure improvement of the art. Yet such is 
still the case in this country with some rare exceptions like 
the experimental farm at Rothamsted, where Messrs. 
Lawes and Gilbert have done so much to aid the farmer 
in applying manures and cattle-feeding materials to the 
best advantage. The Royal Agricultural Society, the 
Highland Agricultural Society, and the Agricultural Col- 
lege at Cirencester, have also contributed towards the 
attainment of the same object ; but, as a rule, agriculture 
is practised almost exclusively under the guidance of mere 
traditional principles and habitual routine, without those 
engaged in this business having any appreciation of the 
phenomena and natural laws which govern the growth of 
plants, even so far as they are known to science. This 
fact is, in part, no doubt a consequence of the general 
disregard of scientific teaching in this country ; but it is 
also referable in some degree to the absence of any orga- 
nised scientific investigation of plant-life in relation to 
agriculture, such as that carried on of late years in Ger- 
many by the aid of the various governments and with 
the hearty support of farmers. It is indeed strange that in 
a country like ours, where agriculture is no longer a mere 
