250 
PROFESSOR OWEN 
CH. VlII. 
end which the best anatomists and physiologists 
have in view. 
‘ I have cited experiments in my “ Lectures 
on the Inve^'tebrata” published last year, in 
which infusions of dead organic matter, light, 
warmth, atmospheric air — in short, all the con- 
ditions requisite for the supposed spontaneous 
development of animalcules — were present, but 
with an adequate contrivance against the possi- 
bility of the presence of the ova of such, and no 
development ensued. I have had personal experi- 
ence — but the case would be too long for this 
letter of acknowledgment — of the inadequacy of 
the preventive means adopted by Mr. Crosse ; the 
like inadequacy of Mr. Weeks’s may be inferred 
from his own description. I have sought in 
every department of animated nature for un- 
equivocal evidence of the earth and the waters 
still exercising those delegated powers to which 
the Mosaic record refers, that rich “ bringing 
forth of the moving creature that hath life” at 
the earliest periods of the peopling of this planet, 
but hitherto in vain. The gradation of organic 
beings is for the most part so close and easy that 
we cannot be surprised at the idea of progressive 
transmutation of species having been a favourite 
one with the philosophic mind in all ages. When, 
however, you refer the highest species of the 
Quadrumana to the Indian Archipelago, and con- 
nect the fact with the origination of man (page 
