ing as spontaneous generation from
the inorganic substance, wisely provided for clearing the earth of
noxious effluvia and putrid matter, and converting them into new
elements conducive to health and life. We believe in this source of
vitality from its wisdom and necessity, its necessity and wisdom, in our
estimate, being strong presumptive proofs of its existence in harmony
with the general forecast and economy of nature. Of the self-originating
spring of life, some of the examples adduced by the author are proofs,
and of which we have familiar illustrations in cheese-mites, maggots in
carrion, and the green fly that breeds so profusely in weak and decaying
vegetation; in all which by some inscrutable law the organic germ,
without an antecedent, appears to evolve from the dead or putrifying
mass for its riddance and transmutation.

Conceding, however, thus far to the author, we are not prepared to admit
that the creative powers of Messrs. CROSSE and WEEKES has been
established. These gentlemen are said (p. 190) to have introduced a
stranger in the animal kingdom, a species of _acarus_ or mite amidst a
solution of silica submitted to the electric current. The insects
produced by the action of a galvanic battery continued for eleven months
are represented as minute and semi-transparent, and furnished with long
bristles. One of the creatures resulting from this elaborate term of
gestation was observed in the very act of emerging, in its first-born
nudity, and sought concealment in a corner of the apparatus. Some of
them were observed to go back into the parent fluid and occasionally
they devoured each other; and soon after they were called to life, they
were disposed to multiply their species in the common way! So much for
the experiment; against its verity it is alleged, first, that the
_Acarus Crossii_ are not a new species, or if new, that neither Mr.
CROSSE nor Mr. WEEKES, who repeated Mr. CROSSE'S experiment, produced
them, but only aided by the voltaic battery the development of the
insects from their eggs. Such a mode of generation is contrary to all
human experience, and can only be believed in on the strongest
corroborative proof.

Neither by chemistry nor galvanism can man, we apprehend, be more than
instrumental and co-operative, not originally and independently
creative. In almost every form of life, whether animal or vegetable, art
can multiply varieties,--can train, direct--but cannot form new species.
Thi