[October, 
614 Analyses of Boohs. 
Munchausen or “ Ernst Von Weber ” ? Further, the ledlurer 
tells us that “ within the last few months Dr. Koch, a Berlin 
physician, has proved to demonstration that that fell disease 
phthisis, pulmonary or tubercular consumption, is due to the 
presence of a certain parasite called a bacillus.” Without enter- 
ing upon the discussion of this theory, we must remind him that 
he might have looked nearer home, and found in Dr. W. Thom- 
son, of Melbourne, probably the earliest — and certainly an inde- 
pendent — author of the discovery ; for which, however, he has 
reaped as little kudos as did Dr. George Walker, the true apostle 
of sanitary reform in England. 
Passing over a handful of jokes and a good sturdy denuncia- 
tion of tight lacing, we come to the peroration. The ledturer 
said, if “ the undevout astronomer is mad, no less, I think, the 
undevout physiologist. Yet Tyndall and other great scientists 
were never thought either mad or pious.” We do not see why 
Prof. Tynda 11, the physicist, is here paraded at the close of a 
Ledlure on Physiology, unless it be for the sake of introducing 
the very threadbare subjedt of the Belfast Address. Dr. Usher 
goes on to say — “ It is incomprehensible to me how men .... 
nevertheless rejedt a designer, as everyone must acknowledge 
who reads Tyndall’s Belfast Address between the lines, — rank 
Atheism, thinly veiled throughout.” Might it not be suggested 
that “ reading between the lines ” is a very difficult process, by 
which, moreover, we may sometimes get out of a book something 
very different from what the author ever put into it ? 
The ledturer proceeds : — “ One great German scientist now 
lives with altered views, and an eminent French one lately died 
as we all would wish to die.” These are but very vague 
assertions. 
Again, returning to Tyndall, Dr. Usher pronounces him il facile 
princeps of them all,” i.e., of men of Science, and even calls 
him “ a man whose discoveries in light and sound alone would 
make even the great Newton, if now alive, sit as the humblest of 
his pupils at his feet!” We doubt if many continental authori- 
ties would endorse this high-flown encomium. 
Baron F. Von Muller, F.R.S., the Government Botanist of 
Victoria, gives a most interesting Ledture on the Flora of Aus- 
tralia as compared with those of New Zealand, of New Caledo- 
nia, of Europe, of Japan, of Chili, of New Guinea, and of the 
United States. The learned speaker concluded with some 
remarks which seem to breathe a spirit of hostility to the 
dodtrine of Evolution. His principal contention is apparently 
that species once extirpated are never restored to vitality. But 
in like manner the individual defundt animal or plant is never 
restored to life. Yet this is no argument against the fadt that it 
has gradually sprung from an initial germ ! 
