i88o.] 
Analyses of Books. 
649 
or, as it is now somewhat more pompously called, abiogenesis. 
In opposition to Pasteur, Tyndall, and others, he maintained 
that under favourable circumstances life may take its origin, not 
from any ova, germs, or spores, but from lifeless matter. In 
how far he still upholds this view, now it has been shown that 
certain microbia are capable of existing at far higher tempera- 
tures than was once supposed, we are not aware. The present 
volume, however, is of a less speculative character. The author 
lays before his readers fadts on which there is now little differ- 
ence of opinion among men of science. 
As may readily be supposed from the title, the work is very 
comprehensive in its scope. Starting with the uses and origin 
of a nervous system, Dr. Bastian gives a general account of 
nerve fibre-cells and ganglia, and of the use and nature of the 
organs of sensation. He describes in succession the nervous 
systems of the Mollusca, Vermes, and Articulata. He next 
describes the brain of fishes, Amphibia, reptiles, and birds. At 
this point of the animal scale we are introduced to the questions 
of the scope of mind, reflex adtion and unconscious cognition, 
sensation, ideation and perception, of consciousness in the lower 
animal, of instindt, nascent reason, emotion, imagination, and 
will. Returning to things visible and tangible, the author 
describes the brain of quadrupeds and some other mammals, 
and that of the Quadrumana. Surveying the mental capacities 
and powers of the higher brutes, he very justly gives the first 
rank to the anthropoid apes. Too many writers, we may here 
remark, confound docility with intelligence, and in enlarging 
upon the reasoning powers of the dog forget that he exhibits the 
hereditary influence of an education which has extended over 
many generations, whilst the ape, caught wild, and rarely sur- 
viving above a couple of years in captivity, is observed at a 
disadvantage. 
Next we are introduced to the most interesting and important 
part of the subject — the human brain. Here the reader will 
meet with many fadts perfectly well established, but scarcely in 
harmony with popular notions. He will learn that the brain of 
man belongs to the same general class as that of the apes and 
monkeys, and that, though the difference in weight between the 
brain of the large anthropoids — such as the orang and gorilla — 
is great, the range met with among individual men is still greater. 
Concerning the lack of symmetry in the corresponding convolu- 
tions of the two cerebral hemispheres, it is remarked that the 
same want of symmetry is met with in the elephant and the 
whale. Careful examination of series of skulls, mediaeval and 
modern, show that the cranial capacity — the size of the space 
filled by the brain — has distinctly increased during the last seven 
centuries. Another remarkable fa dt, pointed out by Vogt and 
Le Bon, is, the difference between the sexes as regards cranial 
capacity increases with the development of the race, the male 
