122 
THE GEOLOGIST. 
is not a more marvellous phenomenon than ordinary reproduction ; 
and M. Pouehet cannot conceive why it is regarded as such an extra- 
ordinarv act. Nature is not abandoned to the disorder of chance ; 
she is governed hj harmonious Jaws, and each act which is accom- 
plished in her depths is connected with the past and is lost in the 
future : each generation which appears is only the corollary of that 
which has preceded it (p. 461). 
He goes on confidently to affirm that " the theory of the formation 
of the earth is not at present the subject of any doubt on the part of 
geologists. It is evident that our planet has been originally an in- 
candescent mass, surrounded with an immense atmosphere of gas and 
vapour ; and that, in cooling, it has endured all the physical or che- 
mical conditions which necessarily resulted from its change of state." 
His argument goes on to say, that certain parts of the globe having 
been upheaved at different periods, each has separately originated a 
fauna peculiar to itself, the degree of perfection of which is in the 
ratio of the antiquity of the continent supporting it. Thus, the infe- 
riority of the Australian men arises, according to M. Pouehet, from 
the Australian continent having been upheaved later than the other 
parts of the world, and the men consequently being more modern, 
have not yet reached their summit of development, like the old races 
of Europe and Asia. The same argument applies to the marsupials 
of Australia, who are, so to speak,, the embryo forms of the placental 
mammalia of the Old and iSTew Worlds. This theory is almost the 
reverse of that adopted by many geologists, who speak of Australia 
as being a " belated " portion of the earth's surface, isolated from 
the rest of the world at an early period, and bearing the emblems of 
a bygone Pauna of Cest radons and Trigojiice, analogous to those of 
the old Oolitic period. 
Our readers will have seen that it is rather as a Biologist than as 
a G-eologist that M. Pouehet has a chance of securing disciples in 
England. Turning however to his researches on the means of pro- 
duction of animals from inorganic matter (Jieterogenesis), his facts 
and arguments seem insurmountable. AVe confess ourselves unable 
to detect any flaw in the chain of testimony which he brings for- 
ward, and regret that the nature of this periodical precludes us 
from offering some of his experiments in detail. All the objec- 
tions which were made by previous writers have been disposed of 
by M. Pouehet. The animals produced belong to the lowest forms 
of Acrita, and the flaws in the experiments of Schultze and Crosse 
have been carefully obviated. 
