was altered, the color became reddish-orange in place of brownish-yellow, and the germinative power was destroyed.

These results sustain, as regards the lower orders of vegetation, the opinion expressed by Prof. Milne Edwards respecting animalcules.

3. Remarks on the same occasion, by A. DE QUATREFAGES.

I have often expressed on the subject of spontaneous generation similar opinions to those of Milne Edwards; and I now give my full adhesion to the conclusions of my learned associate. I take the floor only to communicate to the Academy an observation, which, although incomplete, confirms ideas now generally admitted. [De Quatrefages adds some facts sustaining his opinion.]

4. Remarks on the same occasion, by Dr. CLAUDE Bernard.

Among a large number of experiments which I have made to ascertain the influence of saccharine substances in liquids where microscopic vegetation was developed, I will cite one, as it bears directly on this subject of spontaneous generation now under discussion.

On the 1st of September, 1857, I put into two glass flasks, each half a litre in capacity, about fifty cubic centimeters of a same dilute solution of gelatine in water to which some thousandths of cane-sugar had been added. The liquid was then kept boiling in the two flasks for a quarter of an hour, the tubular neck of each having been previously drawn out so that it could easily be sealed. Up to this point there was no difference between the flasks. Now, when the flasks were still boiling and filled with steam, a difference was begun by allowing ordinary air to enter one, and highly heated air the other. To accomplish this, while ebullition was going on, the neck of one of the flasks was connected with one of the extremities of a porcelain tube filled with fragments of porcelain and brought up to a red heat by a furnace; at the other extremity the porcelain tube was terminated in a glass tube of fine bore, so that the air should enter gradually and pass very slowly over the red-hot porcelain. Thus situated, the vapor of the liquid in ebullition rose into and filled the porcelain tube, and even passed out at the end of the fine tube. The lamp was then removed to arrest the ebullition; and by degrees the steam was condensed and the outside air (air of the laboratory) entered to take its place, passing through the red-hot porcelain tube above described. After the liquid had cooled, the flask was hermetically sealed at the neck.

The other flask was allowed to cool without any connection with the porcelain tube, and the atmospheric air entered freely. When the flask was cooled it was sealed like the other.

The two flasks were then placed in the same conditions, exposed to the light and to the ordinary temperature. After ten or twelve days, at the surface of the flask containing the ordinary air, vegetation was visible, a well-characterized mould, whilst in that which had received the heated air the liquid remained perfectly limpid, and without any thing on its surface. After a month the mould had much increased in the former, while nothing had appeared in the latter, except that the water had slightly lost its clearness. After six months (March 4, 1858) the mould remained stationary in the former, while in the other the liquid continued the same, without any trace of mould.

The extremities of the two flasks were now broken under mercury. In the case of the one with heated air, considerable mercury was absorbed, but none in the other. The air of the two flasks being analyzed, no oxygen was found in either. The air from the flask with ordinary air contained 13:48 per cent of carbonic acid, that of the other, in which no mould had formed, 12:43 per cent.

The liquid of the flask with ordinary air had a putrid and very disagreeable odor, while the other had none. These liquids were examined by Mr. Montagne; and our Associate ascertained that the mould developed in the flask with ordinary air was the Penecillum glaucum, which was in full fructification; in the other he found no trace of any vegetable or animal organism.

It is plain that this experiment, like those which have been before cited, is not favorable to the hypothesis of spontaneous generation.

5. Remarks on the same occasion and subject by the chemist DUMAS.

Dumas stated that he was in full agreement with his honorable Associates. For thirty years he had had under careful examination the question on which Prof. Milne Edwards had instructed the Academy with so high authority, and he had arrived at precisely the same conclusions.

He was incited to experiment on the subject by the publication of Mr. Frey, who had announced results analogous to those communicated to the Academy by Mr. Pouchet.

In his experiments he has assured himself that organized matters heated to 120° C. or 130° C. with water artificially made by means of hydrogen and oxyd of copper, and with artificial air in closed tubes, the glass of which had been recently heated to a red heat, produced neither vegetation nor animalcules. On opening these tubes and allowing ordinary air to enter, there was soon an appearance of vegetation and animalcules. These results had surprised him, as he was disposed to think that the germs of these plants and animalcules might be distributed in

the organized matter as well as in the air itself, and that certain of these germs might well be of a nature to resist a temperature of 100° C. or even a higher temperature.

As the Tardigrades when absolutely dry resist 140° C., and the sporules of Õidium aurantiacum 100° C. in a moist medium, it will not suffice in order to establish the hypothesis of spontaneous generation, that living beings should sometimes appear in boiling water in contact with artificial air and with the presence of organic matters that had before been heated, especially if these matters were heated when dry. When among these inferior animals and plants, life is suspended by absolute desiccation to return to action again on a return of humidity, the being so treated is in that state of latent animation which belongs to germs. It is hence a matter of astonishment that on putting heated organic matters into connection with oxygen and artificial water, we do not sometimes find living beings to appear. Even such an observation as this, would not therefore suffice to establish the theory of spontaneous generation, or prove that the germs of these beings were not previously deposited in the organic matters employed. But, in fact, whilst animalcules appear when the ordinary air has access, without this access under the precautions mentioned they do not appear.

6. Note on Spontaneous Generation, by JAMES D. Dana.

1. There is a well-known principle in the system of nature that deserves to be considered in this connection. The principle is so fully sustained by all research both in chemistry and zoology, including the important experiments above mentioned, that it may well carry with it great weight, and quiet both apprehension and expectation on this subject. It is this:-The forces in life and inorganic nature act in opposite directions, the former upward, the latter downward.

The vital force, in the organic substances it forms, ascends through vegetable and animal life to an exalted height in the scale of compounds at an extreme remove from saturation with oxygen; inorganic force descends towards the saturated oxyd. The former reaches a point which from its very elevation is one of great instability; the latter tends towards one of perfect stability. There is hence a counterpart or cyclical relation between. the two great lines of action in nature.

As some readers of these remarks may not be familiar with chemistry, a further word of explanation is added.

When an element unites with its full allowance of oxygen, as determined by its affinities, it is in a sense saturated with it. Since the attraction of the elements for oxygen is the most universal and, in general, the strongest in nature, the oxyds as a

class are the most stable of compounds; the rocks, the earth's foundations, are made of them. But evanescence and unceasing change are in the fundamental idea of the living structure; and consequently the material of the plant or animal contains only. oxygen enough to give increased instability to the combination. Moreover the compounds augment in instability, through this and other ways, with the rise in the grade of organic life, and reach probably their farthest extreme in this respect in the brain. Here then is the summit of the series of compounds which arise under the agency of life. The stable oxyd is at the lower end of the series in nature, the material of the brain at the upper. Passing from the latter condition towards the former is therefore a real descent; and it is the natural downward course of inorganic forces; while passing towards the latter is as truly an ascent; it is the counter-movement of life.

The plant through its vital functions may take carbonic acid, and from it, continue to elaborate the organic products constituting vegetable fibre, until a whole tree of such material is made, and then produce the higher material of the flower and seed. The animal may then go to the plants and use them in making a still higher class of products, muscular fibre and nerve. After all this is done, now turn over the material to the action of chemical and physical forces, and the work of years of life is soon pulled down from its height, and one part after another descends towards that state of comparative inactivity, the condition of an oxyd. Chemistry makes organic products by commencing with those of a higher grade than the kind to be made, but not otherwise. Albumen is a prominent material of the egg; and chemistry has not succeeded in making dead albumen, much less living.

The very relation of life to chemistry is therefore evidence that chemistry cannot make life; it works in just the reverse direction. And in this reciprocal relation one of the profoundest laws of nature is exhibited. It leads the mind to recognize one author for both, and not to imagine that one side in the cycle. has generated the other.

2. There is another consideration, which, if it has not the force of demonstration, may help the mind to understand the extent of the transition from dead matter to living.

(a) In ordinary inorganic composition, there is the simple formation of inorganic particles, and, on consolidation, their aggrega tion into crystals, the perfect individuals of inorganic nature. With the enlargement of the crystal there is no gain of new powers or qualities: it simply exists. In fact, in entering this state of perfection, there is a loss of latent force; for the gas is the highest condition of stored or magazined force in inorganic

SECOND SERIES, VOL. XXVII, No. 81.-MAY, 1859.

nature, the liquid the next, and the solid the lowest, this condition of power being related directly to the amount of heat.

(b) The plant grows from its germ, enlarges, accumulates force storing it away in vegetable fibre, and accomplishes its highest functions in its blossoms and fruit. But there is here only latent or stored force generated, besides that which is used up in growth, and no mechanical force. The minute spore or reproductive cellule of some seaweeds has locomotive power, but it is lost at the commencement of germination; and the plant is ever after as incapable of self-locomotion as a rock.

(c) In the animal, there is not only a storing of force in animal products (the fifth and highest grade of stored force in nature), but there is also increasing mechanical force from the first beginning of development. It is almost or quite zero in the germ; but from this, it goes on increasing until in the horse, it gets to be a one-horse power; or in the ant, a one-ant power; and so for each species. And in addition to mechanical force, there is, in the higher group, the more exalted mental force; for the mind, while not itself material, is yet so dependent on the material, that its action draws deeply upon the energies of the body. To make an animal germ is then to make a particle of albuminoid substance that will grow and spontaneously develop a powerful piece of enginery, and continue a system of such generations through ages of reproduction.

The creation of any such animal germ out of dead carbon,. nitrogen, hydrogen and oxygen, or any of their dead compounds, is therefore opposed to all known action or law of chemical forces; and as much so, the creation of a vegetable germ from inorganic elements.

Moreover, it is seen that the two kingdoms, the vegetable and animal, have their specific limits and comprehensive reciprocal relations, and are obviously embraced as parts of one idea in a single primal plan:-not a plan involving the generation of one out of the other, or of either out of inorganic nature, but of the three, through some Creating Power higher than all."

ART. XLIX-Eruption of Mauna Loa, Hawaii.

THE central crater of Mauna Loa is again in action. According to a letter from the Rev. T. Coan of Hilo and the public papers, the eruption began on Sunday the 23d of January last.

This is the fourth great eruption since the beginning of the year 1843. Previous to that time Kilauea, the still more spacious crater on the eastern slopes of the mountain, had been often in violent action, while the summit crater was quiet, and