THE GEOLOGIST. 
APEIL 1862. 
SPONTANEOUS GENEEATION. 
It would be obviously inappropriate to discuss in the pages of the 
* Geologist' the theories propounded in Dr. Pouchct's celebrated 
work,* with respect to the heterogenetic 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. Poucliet 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 
universally presided over all the phenomena which take place on its 
surface ; and if it has been His 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 rexperiraentation ; par 
le docteur Felix A. Pouchet.' 8vo. Paris. 
YOL. Y. R 
