730 Spontaneous Generation. [ December, 
and many felt disappointed at the absence of Spencer, of Tolles, 
and of Grunow, having very reasonably expected that such promi- 
nent American makers would from motives of fitness and courtesy, 
if not of interest, contribute their share to the completeness of the 
International Exhibition. It would have been peculiarly appro- 
priate, in view of their undisputed excellence and their high 
claims, that the new duplex front objectives of Tolles should 
have been placed in comparison with the world’s other lenses, 
while the unhandsome insinuation which is being extensively 
printed in advertisements, that they are not at the exhibition be- 
cause they would not be properly examined there, must have 
been authorized without serious thought by the persons responsi- 
ble for it. It is well known that President F. A. P. Barnard, 
who was associated with such judges in this group as Profs. 
Joseph Henry, J. E. Hilgard, and others scarcely less distin- 
guished, gave his personal attention to the examination of the ex- 
hibits in this department. 
Among the objects, other than microscopes, of special interest 
to microscopists, may be classed the double-stained vegetable 
preparations by Dr. Beatty, the large series of fine mounted ob- 
jects by W. H. Walmsley, and the far from equal set of im- 
ported objects, both exhibited by James W. Queen & Co., and 
the more limited series of pathological specimens, by Dr. H. N. 
Krasinski, in the Russian department; the already famous ma- 
chine for micro-ruling on glass, by Professor Rogers ; the hitherto 
unequaled photo-micrographs, by Dr. J. J. Woodward, exhibited 
by the Army Medical Museum, and the good though less pretend- 
ing attempts in the same direction, by Dr. Carl Seiler, in the pho- 
tographic building ; and the large, interesting, and carefully pre- 
pared series of minute fungi, with tinted drawings of the same, 
» contributed by Mr. Thomas Taylor to the exhibit of tle de- 
partment of agriculture in that most creditable portion of the 
whole exhibition, the United States Government Building. 
BASTIAN AND PASTEUR ON SPONTANEOUS GENERA- 
TION. 
BY HENRY J. SLACK. 
N the number of Comptes rendus for July 10, 1876, is a paper 
by Dr. Bastian, On the Influence of Physico-Chemical Forces 
in the Phenomenon of Fermentation, intended to demonstrate, 
in opposition to the theory of atmospheric germs, that certain 
