528 Notices of Books. , [Oftober, 



alone the work of an infinitely intelligent and calculating mind. 

 From these commencements followed the assemblage of the 

 substantial ultimates into separate centres, and the evolution 

 and co-ordination of the various forms of force. The earth, 

 which was probably at its earliest stage gaseous, condensed 

 somewhat suddenly into liquidity or viscidity, the temperature of 

 space being probably very high. The cooling and the formation 

 of the crust of the globe was probably very protracted, the 

 atmosphere was constituted by the escape of vapours through 

 fissures in the crust, volcanic action producing the irregularity of 

 the earth's surface. After a rather short chapter on the moon, 

 the author enters at length upon the question of the probable 

 constitution of the sun, excluding the view that it is an incan- 

 descent mass or a body in a state of combustion. Its bright 

 " faculse" are not flames, but may be produced by the heaping up 

 of (hypothetical) light-generators into masses of greater thick- 

 ness than the general photosphere. The solar surface is 

 acknowledged to be highly electric, but objections are raised to 

 the view that the sun's light is due to electric discharges passing 

 through highly rarefied and very dry gaseous media. The 

 " meteoric theory" is met also by many objections. The force 

 generated in each cubic foot of the solar photosphere would 

 probably be equivalent to that sufficient to raise 5^ lbs. a foot 

 high in a second. This energy is probably not greater than that 

 which many living beings are capable of displaying as 

 mechanical force or as luminous or thermal vibrations. It 

 is obvious that the author inclines to a belief in special solar 

 light-generators, the nature of which is undiscovered. The 

 author considers the primeval vegetation of the earth to have 

 existed before the sun ; it was probably destroyed to afford 

 the pabulum which was necessary for subsequently appearing 

 forms of animal life, centralisation of light in the sun inter- 

 vening between the two epochs. The author illustrates his 

 description of the low forms of organisation by some beautiful 

 drawings of Foraminifera, Polycystina, Diatoms, the spicules of 

 sponges, &c, his object being to show the marvellous evidences 

 of superintending design afforded by the beauty of the produc- 

 tions of these organisms. After snowing the appearances of 

 living things to be not simultaneous but successive, the author 

 enters upon the question of vital origination. The hypothesis 

 of " spontaneous generation," or, as he terms it, " apparent 

 organic origination," finds in him a strong opponent. The 

 champions of this theory can scarcely be gratified with the 

 manner in which their views have been received by the cul- 

 tivators of science. M. Pouchet found that a majority of the 

 savans of the Academie des Sciences condemned his conclusions. 

 Dr. Bastian, who fights the battle in this country, found in Pro- 

 fessors Huxley, Tyndall, and Frankland, prophets who blessed 

 the enemy. And Mr. Ponton considers that all experiments fall 



