484 The Controversy on Spontaneous Generation : [Oct., 



pleasure trip (remembering the season and the nature of the voy- 

 age) the thoughtful consideration beforehand of all those means by 

 which the expedition may be made successful. They will be fully 

 aware that the astronomical world will expect from them something 

 more than the renewal and confirmation of former observations. We 

 may hope from them therefore results of extreme interest, throwing 

 new light on important problems of solar physics, and perchance 

 even revealing unexpected truths respecting the economy of the 

 solar system itself. 



VI. THE CONTKOVEKSY ON SPONTANEOUS 

 GENEEATION: WITH KECENT EXPEEIMENTS. 



By James Samuelson, Editor. 



There is perhaps no biological question, excepting the origin of 

 species, which has been so warmly debated in England and abroad, 

 as the mode in which the lowest known types of animal and plant 

 life come into existence, and probably one reason why these in- 

 quiries have been productive of so much excitement, is their indirect 

 theological bearing. 



The developmental theory recently elucidated by the researches 

 and arguments of Darwin gave a fatal blow to the ancient beliefs 

 concerning the first appearance and presence of the animal and 

 plant races on the earth's surface, and rendered unnecessary the 

 special intervention of the Creator to account for the production of 

 new species ; whilst the hypothesis of spontaneous generation, or 

 the creation de novo, in organic infusions of the lowest known types 

 of plants and animals in our time, seems, to impetuous and super- 

 ficial thinkers, to put the divine influence altogether out of sight, 

 and almost to degrade what have hitherto been regarded as living 

 beings and vital forces to a level with the unconscious physical 

 forces and inert forms of matter. 



With these considerations, however, scientific men have no 

 concern, and whether or not the creation of a riving thing from 

 organic or inorganic materials, by what may be termed artificial 

 means, be regarded as a sacrilege, the investigation must be under- 

 taken without apprehension or prejudice, and the verdict given, not 

 by theology or theologians, but on the evidence of strict experi- 

 mental research, and from unprejudiced inductive reasoning. 



Scientific men being, as a rule, regarded as ruthless iconoclasts, 

 anxious only to lacerate the feelings and undermine the most sacred 

 aspirations of true believers, it may be supposed that these remarks 

 are prefatory to an argument intended to overturn all our precon- 

 ceived views as to the higher nature of life, and to hand over the 



