AucJcland Institute. 401 



in Dr. Bastian's experiments and reasoning : he had shown that Bacteria, 

 occasionally fox'ming films, were produced in his solutions boiled in vacuum 

 tubes ; and he then went on to show, with admirable clearness, the progress of 

 development of higher organisms from Bacterian and Leptothrix films when 

 placed in ordinary conditions. But he does not, as far as the writer can see, 

 anywhere maintain that the films formed by him as described, in vacuo, will 

 produce penecilium, euglense or paramecia, and ciliated infusoria, if only 

 exposed to air which has been eflTectually deprived of germs ; whence it might 

 be inferred that Dr. Bastian admits the necessity of germs for these. 



The paper quoted at length Professor Wy ville Thomson's remarks upon the 

 very lowest form of life, Bathybius, spread in an almost unbroken sheet under 

 the whole area of the ocean, and suggested that this vast development of 

 protoplasm everywhei'e — in every stagnant ditch, or under 15,000 feet of ocean — 

 may be but the first link between organized creatures and inorganic matter, 

 necessary to the existence and development of life, and consisting of very 

 compound and, therefore, mobile molecules, built up by physical forces, and, 

 though subject to very great and rapid changes, being in a constant condition, 

 of variation and molecular motion, yet not itself alive. 



The paper went on to notice the great apparent difficulty, suggested by 

 Dr. Bastian, in conceiving that these lower forms of life should have descended 

 from a line of ancestry far more remote than any of the higher animals, and 

 should still be as simple and rudimentary as at first ; facts which he considers 

 quite opposed to the pi'inciples of the Uniformitarian and Evolutionary 

 Philosophy. It was maintained that, while the conditions remained such as 

 could only maintain the most rudimentary forms of life, development must 

 remain an impossibility ; that when the conditions admitted of a higher form of 

 life being maintained, there development had probably taken place. 



The paper wound up with a few short observations on the importance of 

 this subject, not for scientific purposes only, but as largely influencing the issues 

 of health and disease, and a hope that the colonists of New Zealand would 

 never so alienate themselves from the rest of the human family as to consider 

 so vast a human interest foreign to them. 



An interesting discussion ensued, in which many members took part. 



Fourth Meeting. Wi September, 1873. 

 The Eev. A. G. Purchas, M.R.C.S.E., in the chair. 

 The list of donations to the Library and Museum was read by the Secretary. 

 1. " On Cosmography," by J. Leith. 



