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in blit a loose way ; for there is little constancy in their 
generic characters : according as the surrounding conditions 
determine, they undergo transformations now of one kind 
and now of another. And the vagueness, the inconstancy, 
the ivant of appreciable structure, displayed by the simplest 
of living things as we now' see them, are characters (or 
absences of characters) which, on the hypothesis of Evolution, 
must have been still more decided when, as at first, no 
* forms/ no ‘ types/ no ‘ specific shapes,’ had been moulded. 
That ‘ absolute commencement of organic life on the globe/ 
which the review er says I c cannot evade the admission of/ I 
distinctly deny. The affirmation of universal evolution is 
in itself the negation of an c absolute commencement’ of 
anything. Construed in terms of evolution, every kind of 
being is conceived as a product of modifications wrought by 
insensible gradations on a pre-existing kind of being ; and 
this holds as fhlly of the supposed ‘ commencement of or- 
ganic life’ as of all subsequent developments of organic life. 
It is no more needful to suppose an ‘ absolute commencement 
of organic life’ or a ‘ first organism/ than it is needful to 
suppose an absolute commencement of social life and a first 
social organism.” 
The Spontaneous Formation of Leucocytes. By M. 
Onimus. Robin’s Journ. de VAnatomie, November and 
December, 1868. This is the most convenient place to draw 
attention to these researches, connected as they are in interest 
with the subject of spontaneous generation. 
M. Onimus believes he has proved that a perfectly amor- 
phous liquid, like that formed under the ampulla of the epi- 
dermis, raised by a blister, is capable of developing corpus- 
cles identical with those of the chyle and blood. In his first 
experiments the liquid from a blister, previously filtered, was 
injected under the skin of a warm-blooded animal. In a 
short time the liquid was found full of leucocytes. In the 
present paper M. Onimus gives full details of more elaborate 
experiments, and combats the arguments urged against him. 
He states that many of the inquiries have been conducted 
under the eyes of MM. Legros and Robin, who have verified 
them ; and he quotes some observations of M. Bernard which 
endorse his Hews. In his latest experiments he separated 
the liquid to be experimented on from the blood by means 
of parchment or membrane, and he thinks that the white 
globules could not have made their way through this. There 
is, however, reason to believe from other observations that 
this passage is at least within the range of possibility. 
On the Molecular Origin of Infusoria. By Dr, Hughes. 
