PHYSICAL SCIENCE. 



Bastian (H. Q,.)— continued. 



THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE: Being some Account of the 

 Nature, Modes of Origin, and Transformations of Lower Organ- 

 isms. In Two Volumes. With upwards of lOO Illustrations. 

 Crown 8vo. As. 



Tke subject of this work is one of the highest interest not only to 

 scientific men, but to intelligent men of all kinds. Dr. Bastian' s 

 labours in this airection are already well known and highly valued, 

 even by those who differ from his conclusions. These volumes con- 

 tain the results of several years' investigation on the Origin of Life, 

 and it was only atfer the author had proceeded some length with 

 /lis observations and experiments that he was compelled to change 

 theopinions he started with for those announcedin the present work 

 — the most important of which is that in favour of " spontaneous 

 generation "■ — the theory that life has never ceased to be actually 

 originated. The First Part of the ork is intended to show the 

 general reader, more especially, that the logical consequences of the 

 now commonly accepted doctrines concerning the " Conservation of 

 Energy " and the " Correlation of the Vital and Physical Forces " 

 are wholly favourable to the possibility of the independent origin of 

 ^^ living" matter. It also contains 'a view of the ^^ Cellular 

 Theory of Organisation." In the Second Part of the work, under 

 the head " Archebiosis," the question as to the present occurrence or 

 non-occurrence of ^^spontaneous generation" is fully considered. 

 " He has made a notable contribution to the literature of scientific 

 research and exposition." — Daily News. "It is a book thai 

 cannot be ignored, and must inevitably ad to renewed discussions 

 and repeated observations, and through these to the establishment of 

 truth." — A. R. Wallace in Nature. 



Birks (T. R.) — ON MATTER AND ETHER; or, The Secret 

 Laws of Physical Change. By Th jMAS Rawson Bieks, M.A., 

 Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Cambridge. 

 Crown 8vo. 5J-. dd. 



The author believes that the hypothesi', of the existence of, besides matter, 

 a luminous ether, of immense elastU force, supplies the true and suf- 

 ficient key to the remaining secret^ of inorganic matter, of the phe- 

 nomena of light, electricity, etc. In this treatise the author endea- 

 ■vours first to form a clear and difiniC/ coruption with regard to the 



