1870.] The Devonshire Association. 497 



tion the dust shaken from rags which had been picked up in the 

 streets of Tunis, Trieste, Melbourne, Bombay, and other places from 

 which such rags are imported. These animal types, too, are 

 believed by some to be spontaneously created in infusions. 



Here I leave to the judgment of men of science the results of 

 my experiments, which any boy possessed of a microscope may re- 

 peat as effectually as I have performed them. And if the believers 

 in spontaneous generation still insist that their hypothesis has not 

 been refuted, and that, assuming my observations to be correct, their 

 view of the case has not been fully disproved, I am not prepared to 

 deny this ; but on the other hand I must be permitted to retort that 

 their experiments have only proved, so far, their inability, notwith- 

 standing all their precautions, to exclude invisible germs from their 

 infusions. As to the mysterious appearance of these microscopical 

 types on their solutions in vacuo, what is it compared with the pre- 

 sence of some of the internal parasites of man and the lower animals ? 

 And who would have credited twenty years since, the story of the 

 wanderings and metamorphoses which those forms undergo before 

 they find their way into the final habitat designed for them by 

 Nature ? There is, however, very little chance of the controversy 

 coming to an end at present. It is fascinating and exciting, and 

 in so far quite in accordance with the spirit of the age. Nor is it 

 desirable that it should cease, for it is causing microscopical observers 

 to direct their attention more and more to the beginnings of life, 

 and to the development of those living types which are visible only 

 with the aid of the lens ; and I know of no subject more worthy of 

 the consideration of biologists. 



VII. THE DEVONSHIRE ASSOCIATION FOE THE 

 ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, LITERATURE, AND 

 ART. 



Early in 1862, it occurred to a few scientific men, residents in 

 Devonshire, that they might with advantage establish in their own 

 county an institution resembling the British Association, of which 

 they had for several years been more or less active members. The 

 idea having been favourably received in some of the principal towns 

 of the county, a meeting was held at Plymouth, which, though not 

 largely attended, was thought to be of sufficient weight to inaugu- 

 rate the proposed Association, to draw up a provisional constitution, 

 to elect officers for the first year, and to announce that the first 

 annual meeting would be held at Exeter on the 14th and 15th of 

 August, 1862. 



From that time, meetings have been annually held in different 



