12 
who may be fairly termed the champion of the latter theory, has 
made innumerable experiments with even greater care than any of 
his predecessors, and with results that seem to prove that life may 
originate de novo 
Unfortunately his experiments are repeated by Eay Lancaster 
and others, every precaution being taken to exclude or destroy any 
germs that might produce living organisms, and the result is the 
total absence of all life ; thus the settlement of the question as to 
the production of life, de novo or ah ovo, seems as remote as ever. 
The fact of the evolution of the more highly organized from the 
simpler forms of life, seems at first sight to be of far easier proof 
than that of Abiogenesis. The thin jiellicle wliich forms on the 
surface of fluids, in which animal or vegetable matter has been 
macerated, affords an opportunity for continuous observation, and 
Dr. Bastian has made various experiments, which seemed to show 
that vibrios bacteria and monads did develop into higher forms, 
but other experimenters have not been so successful. It seems to 
me quite possible that the decay of the simiiler organisms may have 
formed a suitable pabulum for the growth and development of the 
higher forms, as the decay of the lichens and mosses on the barren 
rock, has enabled the spores of ferns and seeds of grasses to obtain 
foothold, they in their turn have decayed, and thus conduced to 
the growth of small trees and shrubs, and lastly of large trees ; 
this is no fanciful supposition, but what we know to be now 
taking place on the coral reefs and islets of the Pacific ; arguing 
from analogy, it would be as reasonable to suppose that the 
gigantic palms with which some of these islands are clothed were 
developed from the mosses and lichens that first occupied the dry 
land as to imagine that the rotifers, &c., were developed from the 
vibrios and monads of the proligerous pellicle. 
Some very interesting and valuable experiments have been made 
by the Eev. W. H. Ballinger and Dr. Drysdale, on the growth and 
development of some forms of monad life, the results of which they 
have published under the title of “ Eesearches in the Life History 
of a Cercomonad ; and as these results seem to have imjiortant 
bearings, not only on spontaneous generation, but also on the 
