
55? REVIEWS. 
ing more or less of its former store of vitalized matter into the digestive 
organs? These experiments, however, do not justify the unbiassed mind 
in coming to any conclusion. They have been made with great care and 
thoroughness, but until a series of similar attempts, with all the modern 
appliances and safeguards, has been tried upon matter which is not de- 
rived in any way from previously vitalized compounds, it is not safe to 
say either that life can or cannot be produced by spontaneous generation. 
The key-note to the theory of the origin of species, the doctrine of evo- 
lution, would appear to be the origin of life, the beginning of evolution, 
and this theory, however true it may be in its minor applications, is very 
far from completion when it rests upon a basis of four primary types, Ot 
even one eh origin is doubtful. 
other hand, the theory of mirac “— creation, by which it is 
traced to a specifically distinct progenitor, and that the same species do 
not usually cross any of the great gaps in geological time, thus giving to 
each set of beings, which successively inhabited the surface of the earth, 
the appearance of a new, independent creation 
hese two, grand, hegatty e arguments, are the buttresses of the theory, 
but it is hardly necessary to say that they are not conclusive. The basis 
they afford is liable to be shifted by any new investigation, since it is not 
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species, though it makes a vast difference in the result. If we regard 
slight differences as sufficient to characterize the species, we are ed sates 
wards the view that each is separately created; if, el r latitude 
is given, the varying forms thus supposed to have a ¢ 0 
are oe supporters of Darwin, and bis laws of ier se 

nineteenth _— to look for secondary causes, wind modes " 
may be 100 mined by experiment, rather than 


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e present volumes are, besides their value to the i mtt - 
ralist, a condensed statement of facts with regard to domes = 
We cannot but hope wlll prove beneficial to both. Whatever m 
errors of theory, the facts are judiciously classified, faithfull 
