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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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A somewhat different class of readers will be glad to hear that John Husktk has completed the second volume of his Stones of Venice , which reproduces in the magic of a rare style , the essential forms of Venetian life . Although the " season" promises to he less active than heretofore , there are some announcements to gladden anticipation . Mrs . Gahkbi . l ' s Ruth , and Cuhkkr Hkm / hiicw novel , coming out nearly together , will stimulate nil kinds of curiosity , and those " comparisons" which me critical , not " odious . "
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HPONTANKO 17 S O KNKRATION . ¦ Hearts made to tho Director * of the London ( Watford ) Sprbu ,-wator f ^ 'W «» fj « . itMnltH of Microscopical laminations of the Onjnnu : Matters and holut < ^^> of Water supplied from Iho Thames and otlun- sources . Hy K . hvm . LimkoHlci , M . D ., find l ' otor Rodiorii , M . I ) . , , , , It is well known to readers that reviewers often select a book as the mere peg whereon to hang their own garment— tho text for they own difl-! M ) ur 8 o—tho- " UMwt" vrhicU in " an excuse" for drinking rather copious draughts of tho Piorinn , or other springs . Wo rarely avail ourselves of this privilege , but wo venture to do ho with respect to the loport ol " . DrH / LankoHtor and Kedfern , for iho sake of recording m br . ef tho resulIn of our reHeaiv-hcH into that inyHtoriovm and long-debated subject , ? Spontaneous (^ nomlion . A pannage in Dr . UnlcoHter h I ^ P <> ' ' ; vclat . vo to 1 , 1 . ( 5 prew ' . neo ol ' ento / . oa in the body , will hirniHh us with a text : — " 1 lis a irruvo question for consideration , from whence them cmitimw ur « intro-« luc « d into tin , body . It in iihnoft certain that they are not generated de novo in
the human body , and consequently that their eggs or some form of their «^ J ?^ are introduced from without . From what is already known of the history of tfcese creatures in the lower animals , it is probable they are introduced into *» e system with the water which is drunk . Thus it is known that the stickleback **™™ the eggs of a species of Entozoa called Bothriocephalus , but whilst inside the nsn these eggs never develope into a perfect Entozoon ; but if the fish is eaten by ? bird , the creature becomes perfectly developed . The Gordius or hair-worm dePJ ™ nrsc
its eggs in water , but the eggs are not developed in this position ; they are swallowed by insects , and in this position the egg is hatched , produces the Gordius , which becomes impregnated , and escapes from the insect into waters where it deposits its eggs , the eggs of a species of tape-worm , when swallowed by the rat or mouse , will not produce perfect tape-worms in the inside of these creatures . Due if they are eaten by the cat or dog , then the perfect tape-worm is produced . Many other instances might be quoted to show that it is not improbable thaj some ot the forms of animal life which abound in waters containing organic matter , are transitionary states of those permanent forms of animals which infest the body , and
sometimes even destroy htiman life . The question to be determined is not , How did these creatures get into the body ? but that far more important question , Does every organic being necessarily spring from some antecedent organic being , or may ' it not , tinder certain conditions , be immediately formed from inorganic elements ? Harvey's celebrated dictum of Omne vttmm ex ovo ( every living being comes from an egg ) lias in these later days been found _ untenable , even by those who oppose the notion of spontaneous f Ration , the various forms of generation by budding and by fission have taken from that dictum its universality , and Comte proposes m its place , Omne vivum ex vivo ( every living being comes from a living being ) as unquestionably a more * accurate formula . To those who believe spon-Lonm . o-PiiftrRtioTi possible , even that formula is not universal ; but we
are bound to add that the great forces of Authority areemp ^ caay against the hypothesis of spontaneous generation ; and I > r . ^ rpenter slems to consider the hypothesis unworthy of diBcuauon . Not » m The ancients had very confused notions on this subject . They believed that the corruption of meat produced worms and xnsects . It was not until Bedi , two centuries ago , instituted precise experiments to ^ sprovo this notion , that it fell into disgrace . He showed that ikes . deposited _ their eggs in putrefying meat , and that these eggs were hatched there . From that day to our own , there have been various experiments « w ^ vanous hypotheses on this subject , the old idea of spontaneo us re -ap p ?™§
der EndmoUqie ) admits the spontaneity of the acarus in ringworm . Burdacli , in Ms Physiology , claims the infusoria as belonging to spontaneous generation / Duges and Lamarck think that eleetocifcy can endow certain molecular aggregation ^ with life and Messrs . Grofseand Weekes seem to have proved it ; and O . F . Muller plainly says that infusoria are formedfrom inorganic molecules , "« r « oW « brutis etjitoad sensum nostrum inorganicis ; " but by far the greatest authorities on th s side-are Treviranus \ Biologie ) and Mulder , the first of organic chemists whose section on this subject in his Tliysxologischen Cliemic is , to oui
minds , decisive . , ,. „„« i With regard to the experiments pro and con , they seem , on careful consideration , to want that decisiveness which would coerce conviction ; all the experiments to prove spontaneous generation have admitted the agency of air , in which the seeds or spores may have been present , ( even in Mr . Weekes ' s experiment we cannot be certain that his ' precautions were efficient , ) and all the experiments to disprove it labour under the disadvantage of either eliminating the indispensable condition ot air , or ot so altering it ( as in Schultzc ' s celebrated experiment ) as to give force to the objection raised in the Vestiges—viz ., that we cannot be sure wo have not set aside some other simple condition requisite for non ex ovo generation . To pass the oxygen through sulphuric acid , and then insist that lL is the same ns if it came direct from the atmosphere , with the exception of
its heinjr freed from animal admixture , is a kind of experiment no opponent of spontaneous generation would admit , if brought forward to support the hypothesis . _ . ... We sum up Ihc result of long research in saying that hitherto no conclusive experiment has been devised cither for or against ; the obscurity of the subject , and the facility with which men take i \ iciv suppositions ior explanations , always ready with a " Ma ,, it not be , &c , render the experiments of little avail . . . Many of the facts being disputed and others doubtful , no positive decision can be come to . .. n ] $ oth explanations are hypotheses , and it becomes a question , therefore us to which of the two is the more acceptable . . Religious prejudices will for a long while determine men in favour of oomniema , bee ' . uso that hypothesis having been long established , has orthodoxy in i | . s favour although orthodoxy would be puzzled to cito a conclusive text .
"Let us mention some striking facl-s . Tt has been observed that when a spring of salt-water rises at some distance from tho sea , wo woon notice , in its neighbourhood the growth ol those vegetables only found on the coast or on soils impregnated with Halt . In 184 : } , aeurioviH phenomenon , was observed in almost all the sugar manufactories of Franco ; the sugar presented a strange reddish appearance . On . microscopic investigation , M . Pay en discovered it to ho a growth of en / ptogamic vegetation in tho sugar . In 1 H 51 , M . J Jay vet , the sugar refiner , discovered ' a similar alteration , only it hail not the reddish to be growth ot
hue formerly presented . The microscope revealed it a cryptogamic plants of a different kind from that of IB Mi . Wo bring these forwarclas now facts . They are not conclusive , because the ready answor is , " May it not bv . that tho n |> oreH were floating about and only became developed on finding a suitable nidus ? Ol course it may he " , if generation in " necessarily from sporen and ova ; but tho necessity in here assumed to account for tho fact—it ih not tftven ' tnt ^^ * p fad . Wo will now add what Treviranus has brought to tho enlightenment ; of this ohHeure Huhjcct in the uhstraot given l > y Muller : — " 1 . InfusioiiH , with tho Hiuno wnter , of ( liilVront organic aulwtunccB , —for instance , t ; nw-Hco < lrt and ryo , —K > riH 0 t () ( h"flertiut animalcules . ,
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In the Dublin Mechanics' Institution , one of the largest in the United Kingdom , thene was last week a theological " demonstration" against lJYHON SJIKM . KY , Vol / rAIUK , FiIANCIS NkWMAN , Al . KXANlHlK DlJMA . S , th (> Vestiyes , the Westminster Review , the Trader , and other " names of LMior . " " We . are prevented this week from treating the subject as it must he treated , hut on the receipt of certain documents , we shall exhibit the moralitv of our accusers .
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In chronicles of the first half of this century , Alexandrje Dumas vill hold a conspicuous place , as the most inexhaustible , if not the most admirable of romance-writers . Since Lope de Vega , there has been no such rapid writer . Only the other day , in writing to the Ind&pendance Beige , to excuse himself for the delay which had occurred in the execution of a promise he made to write an article on Emile Deschanel , there occurs this passage , which is almost sublime in its careless indifference to so trifling an omission as that of seven volumes . " I told you , Monsieur , that I would give you a good reason for the eight months' delay which has occurred between the writing of the first and second articles on my friend Deschanel ; and here it is : in that eight months I have written something like thirty volumes . You shake your head , and can with difficulty believe me ? Let us reckon them up : — Conscience l'lnnocent - 5 volumes . La Comtesse de Charny - - - 11 » Le Pasteur d'Aasbourn - 6 » Leone Leona - - »» Memoires ------ 8 ,, Isaac Laquedem ----- 1 3 > Un Gil Bias en Californie - 2 „ Les Drames de la Mer - 2 „ Total - - $ 1 Bon J You see it turns out that there are thirty-seven volumes instead of thirty : j ' espire que je suis beau joueur . '" Only Dumas could have written those volumes in that time , only Dumas could have spoken of the feat m that tone of superb carelessness . " I have written' something like thirty volumes , and , on reckoning , it turns out that I forgot seven—a bagatelle ! the affair of a couple of idle mornings !" One of the works mentioned in that list , Isaac Laquedem , ought to pique the curiosity of his readers in a remarkable degree , if they are to trust what he says of ' it , in his letter to the Constitutional : " It is the work of my whole life ; e ' est Vasuvre de ma vie ! Tvvo-and-twenty years ago , believing myself capable of writing it , I sold it to Charpentier . It was then to be in eig ht volumes . Two years afterwards , I bought it back again , not feelino- myself equal to the task . Since that time , amidst all that I have written , at the bottom of all that I have written , and I have written 700 volumes and 50 dramas , (! !) this idea has lived within me , and the eight volumes have grown to eighteen . Although still unable to execute this work as it ought to he executed , I have , at any rate , in twenty years , studied much , learned much ; all that I have learned of art , of science , of the world , and of men , I shall put into Isaac Laquedem : I repeat , it is the work of my life . " What says the reader to that magnificent Alexandresque flourish ? What are we to expect from a work which is to embrace six different civilizations , beginning with Calvary , and ending with our own day ? When he promises it in eighteen volumes , we must not express much surprise if it runs to eighteen hundred . Of one thing we arc certain , that no number of volumes will daunt the Dumas readers . lie is the first raconteur of Europe .
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... _ are not the legislators , but the judges ana police of literature . They do not C make laws—they interpret and try to enforcethem .. — Edinburgh Review .
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f Decem ber 25 , 1852 . ] THE LEADER . ^ r ^^ r 1235
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 25, 1852, page 1235, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1966/page/15/
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