THE GEOLOGIST. 



APEIL 1862. 



SPONTANEOUS GENERATION. 



It would be obviously inappropriate to discuss in the pages of the 

 ' Geologist' the theories propounded in Dr. Pouchet's celebrated 

 work,* with respect to the heterogeuetic production of beings of 

 simple organization from inorganic particles ; but as the learned 

 author has devoted the whole of his sixth chapter, comprising sixty- 

 seven octavo pages, to the discussion of the " geological proofs " on 

 which he has based his theory, we cannot avoid offering to our readers 

 a slight sketch of the arguments M. Pouchet so eloquently pro- 

 pounds. 



His theory is thus stated : — At various epochs, of which no chro- 

 nology can offer an idea, inert matter has been formed into organized 

 beings, without the aid of any pre-existent organism. This, he says, 

 is a natural consequence of geology, which none will dispute. He 

 further deduces that there has been, subsequent to this first act of 

 creation, other generations, and that perhaps at the present day new 

 species are being called into existence. If a Supreme Being, who 

 manifests His unity over every portion of the globe, has eternally and 

 universall}^ presided over all the phenomena which take place on its 

 surface ; and if it has been Hi^; pleasure to people the earth with 

 tribes of plants and animals which have succeeded on it, why may He 

 not be repeating at the present day that which He has already done 

 during past times ? As P. Gorini has said, spontaneous generation 



* ' Heterogenie, ou Traite des Generations spontanees, base sur I'experimentation ; par 

 le docteur Felix A. Pouchet.' 8vo. Paris. 



YOL. Y. R 



