Page:The Geologist, volume 5.djvu/145



It would be obviously inappropriate to discuss in the pages of the 'Geologist' the theories propounded in Dr. Pouchet's celebrated work, with respect to the heterogenetic production of beings of simple organization from inorganic particles; but as the learned author has devoted the whole of his sixth chapter, comprising sixty- seven octavo pages, to the discussion of the "geological proofs" on which he has based his theory, we cannot avoid offering to our readers a slight sketch of the arguments M. Pouchet so eloquently propounds.

His theory is thus stated:—At various epochs, of which no chronology can offer an idea, inert matter has been formed into organized beings, without the aid of any pre-existent organism. This, he says, is a natural consequence of geology, which none will dispute. He further deduces that there has been, subsequent to this first act of creation, other generations, and that perhaps at the present day new species are being called into existence. If a Supreme Being, who manifests His unity over every portion of the globe, has eternally and universally presided over all the phenomena which take place on its surface; and if it has been His pleasure to people the earth with tribes of plants and animals which have succeeded on it, why may He not be repeating at the present day that which He has already done during past times? As P. Gorini has said, spontaneous generation