SPONTAIiTEOUS GENEEATIOX. 
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 Trenchman'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 Siculus, 
Kircher, Hondelet, Aldrovandus, Matthioli, Pabri, Bonanni, Burnet, 
Gassendi, Morison, Dillen, Buflbn, Gueneau de Montbeliard, Need- 
ham, Priestley, Ingenhousz, Gleichen, Stenon, Baker, "Wrisberg, Pay, 
Werner, O. P. Miiller, Braum, E-udolphi, Bremser, Goeze, Nees 
von Esenbeck, Eschricht, linger, Allen Thomson, De Lametherie, 
Cabanis, Lavoisier, Lamarck, Saint-Araans, Turpin Desmoulina, 
Latreille, Bory St. Vincent, Dumas, Duges, Eudes-Deslongchamps, 
Gros, Tiedemann, Treviranus, Bauer, J. Miiller, Burdach, Cams, 
Oken, Valentin, Dujardin, and A. Bichard." 
Pouchet 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 tlie 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 
aud guard against being deceived." Tlie 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 wide-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 
