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ence of light and heat, which results in the beautiful leaves of 
the various plants and vegetables of the world. Now the 
suppress io veri consisted in this : the lecturer did not say 
that, under all circumstances, his metallic leaves would always 
be formed by lines inclined exactly at the same angles to each 
other, and exactly representing the same crystalline forms; 
and he did not say that the same carbon and hydrogen, the 
same elements of vegetable existence, would form all the 
varieties of vegetable life which we see around us, not simply 
by molecular attraction, as the crystals of lead or silver are 
formed, but under the influence of a prior existing germ, 
derived from another individual of the same kind, which de- 
termines the particular form in which the molecules of inor- 
ganic matter attach themselves together, so as to form a 
particular plant. The lecturer did not say that therefore his 
conclusion was altogether untenable ; that the formation of 
crystals is simply the result of the attraction of molecules of 
inorganic matter, while the formation of a plant is due to the 
influence of a prior existing germ formed by a plant of the 
same species : whence we are, step by step, carried back to the 
great First Cause and Creator of all things. The lecturer 
went on to say that if, in the laboratory of the chemist, the 
various elements of the tissue of a baby could be formed, he 
did not see why a chemist should not be able to make a 
baby. But I can see very well why, under these circumstances, 
a chemist could not make a baby. (Laughter.) In the first 
place there is not in the laboratory of the chemist the slightest 
approach to the formation of any liviug tissue; and even if 
the chemist could form the coagulable lymph, that fluid 
separated from the blood, from which all living tissues are 
formed in the higher organizations, would not bring him 
a bit nearer to the formation of tissues than before : but 
even supposing that he could form all the various tissues, we 
should not yet have the baby. We are told in the second 
chapter of Genesis that out of the dust of the earth God 
created Adam, and “ breathed into his nostrils the breath of 
life.” Adam was not a living being until the breath of life 
had been breathed into his nostrils ; and it is evident to the 
meanest comprehension that even supposing the material 
substance of the human body could be constituted in the 
laboratory of the chemist, all that distinguishes a living 
being from dead matter would still be wanting ; and that, at 
all events, is due to the operation of Divine power alone. 
Give the chemist even a perfect organism, from which the 
spark of life has but this moment fled, and can he rekindle 
it? No : he may indeed galvanize the limbs into a mimic 
