SPOJv'TANEOUS GENEEATION. 



123 



We are anxious to remove the supposition that there is anything 

 like absurdity in the physiological argument, however there may be 

 in the geological deductions of our author. The facts recounted by 

 him are only those which a pains-taking observer would collect, and 

 the work is (for a Erenchman's) singularly devoid of any imaginative 

 flights. 



Hasty Biologists condemn the theories of M. Pouchet, without 

 giving due weight to his arguments. Such writers will never 

 range in the list of advocates of spontaneous generation, amongst 

 whom M. Pouchet triumphantly quotes "Anaxagoras, Leucippus, 

 Democritus, Epicurus, Aristotle, Pliny, Lucretius, Diodorus S-iculus, 

 Kircher, B,ondelet, Aldrovandus, Matthioli, Eabri, Bonanni, Burnet, 

 G-assendi, Morison, Dillen, Buffon, Gueneau de Montbeliard, Need- 

 ham, Priestley, Ingenhousz, Grieichen, Stenon, Baker, AVrisberg, Eay, 

 A¥erner, O. E. Miiller, Braum, Eudolphi, Bremser, Goeze, iSTees 

 von Esenbeck, Eschricht, linger, Allen Thomson, De Lametherie, 

 Cabanis, Lavoisier, Lamarck, Saint-Amans, Turpin Desmoulins, 

 Latreille, Bory St. Vincent, Dumas, Duges, Eudes-Deslongchamps, 

 Gros, Tiedemann, Treviranus, Bauer, J. Miiller, Burdacli, Cams, 

 Oken, Valentin, Dujardin, and A. Bichard." 



Poucliet remarks that the antagonists of spontaneous generation 

 have always treated its partisans with a severity with which a just 

 cause is never defended ; they have often represented the theories of 

 spontaneous generation as the mere fruits of insanity ; nevertheless, 

 the illustrious names who avow their belief in it merit a greater 

 respect, and the opinions of men who have so much honoured science 

 should be carefully examined before they receive so disdainful a re- 

 probation (p. 5). 



Chevreul has remarked that truth for all right-minded men, what- 

 ever their position in life, is the most precious of all objects : for 

 sooner or later it will triumph over error. Descartes wished to 

 examine all scientific theories, even the most unlikely and the most 

 false, "to the end," he said, "that he should know their just value 

 and guard against being deceived." The same favour M. Pouchet 

 implores ; and he demands, as a right, that his work shall not be 

 judged until after it has been read and considered. Professor Owen 

 has told us, " If it be ever permitted to man to penetrate the mystery 

 which enshrouds the origin of organic force in the w^ide-spread mud- 

 beds of fresh and salt waters, it will be, most probably, by experiment 

 and observation on the atoms which manifest the simplest conditions 

 of life. . . . Whether an independent, free-moving, and assimilating 



