NATURE 



{Aug. 8, 1872 



Savilian professor at Oxford. See Keill's ' Examination 

 of Dr. Burnet's Theory of the Earth,' page 140. It is cer- 

 tainly a remarkable coincidence that the school of Cassini 

 starting with the erroneous theoretical notion that the 

 degrees of the meridian cui^lit to decrease from the 

 equator to the pole arrived at the same result by observa- 

 tion and measurement. 



"There can, 1 think, be no doubt that at least Mauper- 

 tuis and Clairaut, who were the most eminent of the 

 French party, held the correct Newtonian theory as to 

 the figure of the earth ; and their result was rather too 

 decided in its confirmation of this theory. Now the 

 gcodetical angles could scarcely be influenced by the 

 theoretical opinions of the observers ; because it would 

 not be obvious in what way the result would be affected 

 by an error in an angle. But in measuring the base it 

 would of course be obvious that the larger was the value 

 obtained, the stronger was the evidence for an oblate 

 form. Similarly in estimating the amplitude, the smaller 

 the value obtained the stronger was the evidence for the 

 oblate form. In these two parts of the survey then it 

 would be necessary to be on the watch lest the conviction 

 of what the result ought to be should influence the im- 

 pression of what the observation really gives. 



" It is curious that Maupertuis and his party seem to 

 have thought at first that their success w^as too decided, 

 and therefore their amplitude too small ; and that on 

 their second determination they should have made it 

 between 3" and 4" larger than at first." 



THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE* 

 I. 



AFTER a careful perusal of this important and sug 

 gestive work, a prominent feeling is one of regret 

 that its value and popularity should be endangered owing 

 to purely technical faults of composition and arrangement. 

 It is so full of curious and novel facts and experiments, 

 it contains so much excellent reasoning and acute criti- 

 cism, and it opens up such new and astounding views of 

 the nature and origin of life, that one feels it ought to and 

 might have ranked with such standard works as the 

 " Origin of Species" and the " Principles of Biology,'' if 

 equal care had been bestowed upon it as a literaiy com- 

 position. But, unfortunately, it altogether lacks their 

 powerful condensation and lucid arrangement. Its vast 

 masses of facts are stated too diffusely, and are often so 

 scattered as to lose the cumulative force that might have 

 been given to them ; while the arguments are broken up 

 and weakened by a too minute classification of the subjects 

 treated, leading to repetition and confusion rather than to 

 clearness. Haste of composition is further indicated by 

 the quantity of additional matter given in foot-notes that 

 should have found a place in the text ; and we often find 

 it difficult to follow the special argument in hand, or to 

 see the connection and relevance of much of the detailed 

 evidence brought forward. 



Notwithstanding these defects, which will undoubtedly 

 diminish its popularity, it is a book which will make its 

 mark, and must produce a powerlul sensation. 



It brings together a large body of facts, either new 

 or hitherto almost ignored, which, unless they can be 

 otherwise explained, prove much more than the mere pro- 

 duction of low living organisms from dead matter ; for 

 these low forms have been seen to combine and give rise 

 to higher forms, and these again to still higher and more 

 complex organisms. Vegetable cells or their contents 

 develop into various low animals ; while animal as well as 

 vegetable organisms of specialised forms and some elabo- 

 ration of structure seem to be mutually transformable by 

 processes quite unlike any of the hitherto accepted modes 



* "The Peginnings of Life : being feme account of the Nature, Modes of 

 Origin, and 'frans-formations of Lower Organisms." By H. Charlton Pas- 

 t:an, M.A., M.D, F.R.S. (= vols. London : MaimiUan avd Co. iS;2,) 



of multiplication or reproduction. These processes have 

 been traced stage by stage, so that there seems no possi- 

 bility of mistake ; and they do not rest on the observations 

 of Dr. llastian alone. Facts of this nature have been re- 

 peatedly published for more than twenty years by many 

 Continental and P^nglish naturalists, but, being so entirely 

 opposed to current theories, have been all silently ignored, 

 just as true facts and careful observations relating to the 

 antiquity of man were so long ignored. Our author has, 

 however, repeated and tested many of these observations, 

 and finds them to be strictly accurate ; and they harmonise 

 perfectly w-ith the views on the origin of life founded on 

 his own experiments, and so energetically advocated by 

 him. 



Looked at merely as curiosities of science, and as an 

 unveiling of mysteries hitherto thought to be inscrutable, 

 these observations are of supreme interest ; while their 

 importance in connection withmodern theories of develop- 

 ment and the origin of species can hardly be overrated. 

 Setting aside all the prejudices and dogmas of the existing 

 schools of biology, it must be admitted that the views here 

 presented of the perpetual origination of low forms of life 

 now, as in all past epochs, is in perfect harmony with the 

 doctrine of evolution, and docs aw-ay with many of the 

 physical and geological difficulties which are undoubtedly 

 among the most serious which beset those special views 

 of the origin of life which j\lr. Darwin holds, but which 

 are by no means necessary inferences from his theories. 

 ( The present work is essentially one that to be judged 

 soundly cannot be judged hastily. The subject is of over- 

 whelming importance to the future progress of scientific 

 biology, and the facts and observations on which it is 

 founded are so numerous and so precise, and have 

 been tested by such a body of distinct and competent 

 observers, that no a pi tori arguments and no authoritative 

 dicta can have any weight against them. Observation 

 alone can demonstrate whether they are facts or delusions. 

 They will no doubt be fully criticised by those whose 

 special studies render them competent to do so ; but if 

 the past history of science has any value whatever, the 

 result cannot be doubtful. Facts observed and tested by 

 a succession of careful and accurate observers, such as 

 those whose evidence is adduced by Dr. Bastian, have 

 never yet proved to be fallacies. 



We now propose to lay before our readers a sketch of 

 the more interesting matters treated of in these volumes, 

 citing a few of the most striking of the new facts and the 

 most important of the arguments founded upon them. 



More than half of the first volume is devoted to an 

 account of the Nature and Source of the Vital Forces and 

 of Organisable Matters, and we have an excellent sum- 

 mary of modern views on the correlation of vital and 

 physical forces, on the vital principle, on theories of organi- 

 sation, and on the modes of origin of reproductive units and 

 cells. As bearing upon subjects to be discussed further 

 on, there is an important remark on the origin of germs 

 or specks of living protoplasm in the fluids of the living 

 body. These fluids, it is maintained, are not alive, and, 

 therefore, the living germ does originate in a dead organic 

 fluid. Even if it is held that blood and all the other 

 secretions are alive, yet as they have been formed out of 

 dead matter taken into the stomach there must be some 

 point at which the particles of dead matter become 

 transformed into living matter, and the circumstance of 

 this occurring within an organism does not alter the fact 

 of its occurrence, or render it at all more easy to conceive 

 or explain. Why, then, should it be so absolutely in- 

 credible that specks of living protoplasm should arise in 

 suitable fluids out of a living body .' It is certain that as 

 soon as the fact that they do so arise is established, the 

 one will be as easy to conceive and be as credible as the 

 other. The only other point that calls for notice in this 

 part of the work is the discussion on the supposed "vital 

 force," in which the views of the " vitalists" seem to be 



