172 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
SPONTANEOUS GENERATION.* 
T hose who read the admirable exposition of the doctrine of Hetero- 
geny which Dr. Hughes Bennett gave in his article on the molecular 
origin of Infusoria {Popular Science Revie^v, January), will be prepared to 
comprehend the essay of M. Pennetier, which has now reached its third 
edition, and which is so excellent a work that we trust it may soon find an 
English translator. M. Pennetier is not merely an advocate, he is also a 
witness, and his evidence, laid in various memoirs before the Academy of 
Rouen, has contributed largely to swell the formidable mass of testimony 
which the followers of M. Pasteur have in vain tried to overthrow. Indeed, 
M. Pennetier’s position as a champion of the doctrine of spontaneous genera- 
tion is so little inferior to that of M. Pouchet himself, that the latter says of 
the work under notice that it is a remarkable summary of all that has 
been done up to the present time in Heterogeny, and will remain a model of 
strength operating under the influence of reason and good faith.” This 
little volume extends over about 300 pages, is abundantly illustrated 
by well-selected woodcuts ; and must be regarded as a complete account, 
historical, descriptive, and ratiocinative, of the important doctrine it 
treats upon. It is divided into about fourteen chapters, and contains a 
valuable and tolerably exhaustive bibliogi’aphy in the form of an appendix. 
It is out of power, owing to our limited space, to give an abstract of each 
chapter ; and indeed it is unnecessary, as those who are interested in the 
subject must read the work for themselves, and a brief sketch of some of the 
more striking parts of the work will give a sufficient notion of the general 
character of M. Pennetier's arguments. The question now at issue between 
those who assert the fact of spontaneous generation and those who deny it 
is considered by many to be a very unintelligible and abstruse one ; but it 
is nothing of tlie sort. It lies in a nut-shell, so to speak. Whence does 
such a substance as common mould come? How is it that a vessel of 
water containing decaying vegetable matter, although at first devoid of 
traces of animal life, soon becomes charged with living organisms animal 
and vegetable ? Those who hold the generally accepted belief thus 
explain this phenomenon. The air is charged with the floating genus of 
infusoria, fungi, and such like, and these find a favourable nidus in 
decaying vegetable solutions, in which they develope into perfect beings. 
It is just as the seeds of com, ^^some fall by the wayside ” and are lost, 
but others reach fertile soil, or, in other words, meet favourable condi- 
tions, and therefore germinate and grow. This is, after all, in great 
mea.sure an a.ssertion, just like the gratuitous assumption that all species of 
animals were separately created. And just as l\Ir. Darwin has knocked over 
the latter, so M. Pouchet endeavoui-s to overturn the former hypothesis. It 
is certainly a difficult ta.sk in both cases. The opponents are in each 
instance expected to prove a negative, and we are of opinion that in the two 
cases they have very nearly succeeded in doing so. Anyhow, the majority 
• “ I/f)rigine de la Vie.” Par le Docteur Georges Pennetier; ouvrage 
illustr<5 de nombreuses vignettes sur bois, avec une preface par le Dr. F. A. 
I’ouchet. .3rd edition. Paris: Rothschild, 1808. 
