262 Notices of Books. [April, 
of an inch, and less, in diameter ? and, further, if the said germs 
bear the same proportion to their adults as that which obtains 
between the germs of plants or animals familiar to us, and those 
when fully developed, the difference in some cases may amount 
to no more than tens of thousands, but in other cases it must be 
hundreds of millions. Compare, for example, an acorn with an 
oak ; a turnip-seed to the large succulent bulb (!) it produces ; 
the human germ, measuring about the 250th part of an inch, to 
a man weighing 16 stone; and it will be obvious that the germs 
of organisms in putrefying solutions, if such exist, are minute 
beyond comprehension, and that the highest powers of the micro- 
scope must ever be immeasurably inadequate to detedt their 
presence.’ These sentiments alone are enough to refute the 
theory omne vivum ex vivo, as regards the origin of the Infusoria 
and the lowest Fungi, as mould, or mildew, &c.” With all due 
deference to the author and to Dr. Dougall, we cannot help re- 
garding the man who can deny the existence of germs, on the 
strength of such considerations, a psychological curiosity. To 
doubt or deny the existence of anything because to our faculties 
or to our instruments it seems minute is an outcome of that 
vicious old principle which seeks to make man the measure of 
all things. The fadt so often urged by the opponents of Abio- 
genesis, — that sealed tins of milk, meat, soups, &c., are not 
when opened found swarming with animal and vegetable life, — 
the author seeks to explain by saying that they “ had not arrived 
at that stage to absorb a legitimate heat and result in life.” 
Such phraseology seems to us the very essence of “ vagueness.” 
“A boiling heat or a frozen atmosphere are temperatures illegiti- 
mate and unregistered.” Why the boiling heat should be called 
“ unregistered,” or what is the precise meaning of that term, we 
do not profess to decipher. But letting that pass ; if “ legiti- 
mate heat ” denotes the temperatures below the boiling, but 
above the freezing point, we should think that a tin of meat, 
after being sealed and boiled in Australia, must, during its 
passage to England, have had every opportunity of absorbing 
“ legitimate heat ” enough. Yet we never hear of the develop- 
ment of Badteria, &c., in the tins, except there is some breach 
of continuity admitting the outward air. 
We do not see that Mr. Huntley has succeeded in throwing 
any new light on the very important and difficult question with 
which he has attempted to grapple. 
Light as a Motive Power : a Series of Meteorological Essays. 
By Lieut. R. H. Armit, R.N. Vol. I. London : J. D. Potter. 
The author announces his intention of proving that “ there is 
only one law, one life, and one death in Nature, and that her 
