o 



118 REPORT 1871. 



period of the life of this Association. I need not say how distinguished the Germans 

 nave been by their contributions to the history of animal development. The names 

 of Valentin, R. Wagner, BischofF, Reichert, Kolliker, and Remak are sufficient 

 to indicate the most important of the earlier steps in recent progress, without at- 

 tempting to enumerate a host of others who have assisted in the great work thus 

 founded. 



I am aware that the mere name of development suggests to some ideas of a 

 disturbino- kind as being associated with the theory of evolution recently pro- 

 mulgated. To one accustomed diuing the whole of his career to trace the steps by 

 which every living being, including man himself, passes from the condition of an 

 almost imperceptible germ, through a long series of changes of form and structure 

 into their perfect state, the name of development is suggestive rather of that which 

 seems to be tlie common history of all li^-ing beings ; and it is not wonderful therefore 

 that such a one should regard with approval the more extended view which sup- 

 poses a process of development to belong to the whole of nature. How far that 

 principle maj- be carried, to what point the origin of man or an}' animal can by facts 

 or reasoning be traced in the long unchronicled history of the world, and whether 

 living beings may arise independently of parents or germs of previously existing 

 organisms, or may spriug from the direct combination of the elements of dead mat- 

 ter, are questions still to be solved, and upon which we may expect this Section to 

 guide the hesitating opinion of the time. I cannot better express the state of 

 opinion in which I find myself in regard to the last of these problems, than by 

 quoting the words of Professor Huxley from his address of last year, p. Ixxxiii : — 



" But though I cannot express this conviction of mine too stronglj' [viz. that 

 the evidence of the most careful experiments is opposed to the occiuTence of spon- 

 taneous generation], I must carefully guard myself against the supposition that I 

 intend to suggest that no such thing as abiogenesis ever has taken place in the 

 past, or ever will take place in the future. With organic chemistry, molecular 

 physics, and physiology yet in their infancy, and every day making prodigious 

 strides, I think it would be the height of presumption for any man to say that the 

 conditions imder which matter assumes the properties we call 'vital, may not, 

 some day, be artificially brought togetlier." And again, " If it were given me to 

 look beyond the abyss of geologically recorded time to the still more remote 

 period when the earth was passing through physical and chemical conditions, 

 which it can no more see again than a man can recall his infancy, I should expect 

 to be a witness of the evolution of living protoplasm from not living matter. I 

 will quote further a few -n-ise words from the discourse to which many of you 

 must have listened last evening with admiration. Sir William Thomson said :— 

 " The essence of scieuce, as is well illustrated by astronomy and cosmical physics, 

 consists in inferring antecedent conditions, and anticipating future evolutions, from 

 phenomena which have actually come imder obsers'ation. In biology, the diffi- 

 culties of successfully acting up to this ideal are prodigious. Our code of biologi- 

 cal law is an expression of our ignorance as well as of our knowledge." And 

 again, " Search for spontaneous generation out of inorganic materials ; let any one 

 not satisfied with the pm-ely negative testimony of which we have now so much 

 against it, throw himself into the inquiry. Such investigations as those of Pas- 

 tern-, Pouchet, and Bastian are among the most interesting and momentous in the 

 whole range of natural history, and their residts, whether positive or negative, 

 must richly reward the most careful and laborious experimenting." 



The consideration of the finest discoverable structures of the organized parts 

 of living bodies is intimately bound np with that of their chemical composition 

 and properties. The progress which has been made in organic chemistry be- 

 longs not only to the knowledge of the composition of the constituents of or- 

 ganized bodies, but also to the manner in which that composition is che- 

 mically viewed. Its peculiar featm-e, especially as related t-o biological inves- 

 tigation, consists in the results of the introduction of the synthetic method 

 of research, which has enabled the chemist to imitate or to foi-m artificially 

 a greater and gi'oater nianber of the organic compounds. In 1828 the first of 

 tliese substances was formed by Wohler, by a synthetic process, as cyanate of 

 ammonia. But still, at that time, though a few no doubt entertained juster views, 



