■^%^ IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 ■^ lU 12.2 £ 1^ |2.0 I.I m 1 ^M ||||=Li 11^ ^ 6" - ► ^ >*. %^^^.p y Photographic Sciences Corporation 33 WIST MAIN STRUT WEBSTH.N.Y. MS80 (716)872-4303 ^ CIHM/ICMH Microfiche Series. CIHM/ICMH Collection de microfiches» Canadian Institute for Historical IVIicroreproductions / Institut Canadian de microreproductions historiquet Technical and Bibliographic Notas/Notas tachniquas at bibliographiquas Tha Instituta has attamptad to obtain tha bast original copy availabia for filming. Faaturas of this copy which nay ba bibliographically uniqua. which may altar any of tha imagaa in tha raproduction, or which may significantly changa tha usual mathod of filming, ara chackad balow. D D □ D D Colourad eovars/ Couvortura do eoulour pn Covars damagad/ Couvartura andommagia Covars rastorad and/or laminated/ Couvartura rastaurAa at/ou palliculte □ Covar titia missing/ La titre da couvartura manqua I I Colourad maps/ Cartas giographiquas it coulaur □ Colourad ink (i.a. othar than biua or black)/ Encra da coulaur (i.a. autre que bleue ou noire) r~~l Colourad plates and/or Illustrations/ flenches et/ou illustrations en couieur Bound with other materiel/ ReliA avec d'autres documents Tight binding mey cause shadows or distortion al'jng interior mergin/ La re Mure serrie peut cauaar da I'ombre ou de la distorsion ie long de le marge int*rleure Blank leaves added during restoration may appear within the text. Whenever possible, these have bean omitted from filming/ II se pout que eertainas pagea blanches ajoutias lors d'una reatauration appareissent dans le texte. mais. lorsque cela ttmit possible, ces peges n'ont pes M film«es. Additional comments:/ Commantairas supplAmantairas: L'Institut a microfilm* la maillaur axjmplaira qu'il lui a itt possible de se procurer. Las details de cet exempleira qui sont paut-itra uniques du point da vue bioliographiqua, qui pauvent modifier una image reproduite. ou qui peuvant exiger une modiification dans la m^thoda normala de filmaga sont indiqute ci-dessous. |~n Coloured pages/ D Pagee de couieur Pagea damagad/ Pages ondommegies Pages restored and/oi Pages restaurias at/ou palliculAes Pages discoloured, stair.sd or toxai Pages dAcolortes, tachaties ou piquies Pages detached/ Pages ditachias Showthrough/ Transparence Quality of prin QualitA inAgala de I'imprassion Includea supplementary materii Comprend du motiriel supplimentaire Only edition availeble/ Seule Mition disponible r*~] Pagea damagad/ p~1 Pages restored and/or laminated/ rri Pages discoloured, stair.sd or toxed/ r~n Pages detached/ rrn Showthrough/ |~n Quality of print varies/ rn Includea supplementary material/ rn Only edition availeble/ Pages wholly or psrtially obscured by errata slips, tissues, etc., have been ref limed to ensure the best possible image/ Lea pages totalement ou patiailement obscurcies par un feuillet d'errats, une pelure, etc.. ont M filmies i nouveau de fa^on i obtanir la meilleure imaaa possible. This item is filmed at the reduction ratio checked below/ Ce document est film* au taux de riduction indiqui ei-deaaous. 10X 14X 18X 22X 26X 30X y 12X lex 20X 24X 28X 32X Th« copy filmsd h«r« has b««n raproducad thank* to tha ganaroaity of: Library off Parlianwnt and the National Libr ry of Canada. quality iagibiUty tha Tha imagaa appaaring hara ara tha poaaibia eonaidaring tha condition of tha original copy and in kaaping filming eontraet apacifieationa. Original copiaa in printad papar eovara ara flimod baginning with t.*:s Uii,ti eovar and anding on tha laat paga with a ;irintad or illuatratad impraa- alon, or tha back eovar whan appropriata. All othar original copiaa ara fUmad baginning on tha firat paga with a printad or illuatratad impraa- aion. and •rtding on tha laat p'jga with a printad or illuatr. tad impraaalon. Tha iaat raeordad frama on aach microflcha ahaH contain tha aymbd — » (moaning "CON- TINUED"), or tha aymbd ▼ (maaning "END"). wMclwvar appiiaa. L'axamplaira fllmi fut raproduit grica i ia giniroait* da: La Biblkith^a du Parlamant at la Bibliothkiua nationala du Canada. Laa imagaa auhrantaa ont *t6 raproduitaa avac la plua grand aoin. compta tami da la condition at da la nattat* da l'axamplaira flImA. at ti conformiti avac laa condltlona du contrat da filmaga. Laa aaamptoiraa originaux don~ la couvartura an papiar aat imprimte aont filmte an comman^nt par la pramkMr plat at an tarminant aoit par ia damiiira paga qui comporta una amprainta dimpraaaion ou dlNuatration. aoit par ia aacond plat, aaton ia eaa. Toua laa autraa axampiairaa originaux aom filmia an comman^nt par ia pramiira paga qui comporta una amprainta dimpraaaion ou dllluatration at it tarminant par la damlAra paga qui comporta una taila amprainta. Un daa aymboiaa auhranta apparaltra aur ia danMra imaga da chaqua microflcha, aalon la caa: I* aymbola •^ aignifla "A SUIVRE", ia aymboia ▼ aignifla "RN". Mapa, plataa. charta. ate.. ma>' ba flimad at diffarant raduction ratioa. Thoa«i too largo to ba antiraly included in one axpoaura are flimad baginning in tha upper loft hand comer, iaft to right and top to bottom, aa nsany framee aa required. The following diagrama illuatrata the method: planchee. tablaeux. etc.. peuvent *tre filmda i dee taux do rMuetion dlff«renta. Loraque la document eet trap grand pour #tra reproduit en un aaui cllch4, il eet fllm4 i partir da Tangle aupMaur gauche, do gauche i droite. et do haut en baa. an pranant ia nombre dimagee n^caeaaire. Lee diagrammea auivanta IHuatrent la mMiode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 i Spontaneous Generation, or Predestinated Generation By Andrew Dewae. In givinor a paper on the above subject, we are well aware that we are treading on dangerous ground. The bare mention of the title is enough to arouse bitterness and contention in many whose minds have been trained in the strict theological schools of A past day ; but, knowing well that we are addressing a Scientific Society who look at and disscuss the subjects brought before them from no other than a scientific point of view, we desire to claim your atter tion for a short time to the much debated question of spon- taneous generation. We do not come before you with any new experiment's to illus- trate the subject, for we are of opinion that so far as experiments are valuable, no new ones can be performed that would materially alter the position of afRiirs, or give a further insight into the begin- nings of life. Such have been made scores of times and by as many different men. Besides, no one would put faith in experiments performed in such a benighted country as Nova Scotia. Sceptics on the subject are of opinion that a microscope will yet be made which will enable us to see the very evolution of life ; but it must be apparent to any one, that until we can see an atom separate and distinct as an individual — a result which of course can never ensue as the very atmosphere we look through is composed of atoms — we can never see two atoms coming together and exhibiting life ; thus the birth of life will remain for ever a phenomenon buried in infinity. But this should be no hindrance to our reasoning out the modus operandi by analogy, a proceeding which, under the circumstances, is perfectly allowable and scientific. The general meaning ofti.e term Spontaneous Generation is, that matter of itself and by itself, without seed, ^gg^ or antecedent vegetable and animal life, creates out of its own substance a living plant or animal. V 2 DEWAR — ON SPONTANEOUS GENERATION. Taking this as our groundwork, we proceed to state that we believe in Spontaneous Generation, in so far as that life may be originated in matter without seed, egg^ or antecedent life, but with this essential difference that we believe in a power higher than matter or the force implanted in matter, and that it is this powr which is the original source of life in matter. Instead of Spontaneous Generation therefore, we would rather say Predestinated Generation, because when a new creation is formed, it has only come into being by the exertion of a law implanted in matter in the beginning, by which it was ordained that when certain atoms of matter came into a certain position and condition, a plant or animal of a certain character would be the result. Even in this statement, however, we go further than the Evolu- tionists, or the most advanced so-called materialists of the modern school of thought, for Dr. Tyndall (who maybe taken as one of the leaders of the school) in his late Belfait address said : '♦ They will frankly admit their inability to point to any satisfactory experi- mental proof that life can be developed save from demonstrable antecedent life." Of course Dr. Tyndall here means that they have no proof that life has been developed save from antecedent vegetable or animal life, from the seed or the egg; but if, as we maintain, and \n\\ shortly show, that magnetism, or the force which governs matter, is only a lower form of animal and vegetable life, any new creation, or instance of spontaneous generation, is only a develop- ment from this lower inorganic life (as we may call it), to the higher organic life ; so that all life, in one sense of the term, must he and is, developed from antecedent life. Darwin, and Huxley who supports him, have another theory to the same effect as Tyndali's. In his " Origin of Species," Darwin says : "I should infer from analogy, that probably all the organic beings which have ever lived on this earth have descended from some one primordial form." Again : "I view all beings not as special creations, but as the lineal descendants of some few beings v»hich lived long before the first bed of the Silurian system was deposited." No explanation is offered of the origin of this primor- dial form. We not only say it is unnecessary that there should be '•i" '. y. ■' ■i r DEWAR — ON SPONTANEOUS GENERATION. *#!(•' ■i any antecedent animal and vegetable life, but it is not even necessary to have a primordial form to father everything. We assert that out of the "dead hydrogen-atoms, the dead oxygen- atoms, the dead carbon-atoms, the dear! nitrogen-atoms, the dead phosphorous-atoms, and all the other atoms, dead as grains of shot," which Dr. Tyndall speaks of,* (but which we say are all alive,) new forms of life are created and brought into being every day. Furthermore, so nmch is this the case, that were it possible to transhite all the living animals, great and small, visible and invisible, to another world, so that not even a primordial form was left, we believe that with the properties with which matter is endowed, and with the limitations which the Deity has imposed on the creation and propagation of monbtrosities, that the earth in the course of a few centuries would be re-inhabited with animals and men that did not mMtenally differ from the earth's present occupants. Tiie only faculty probably which could not be evolved out of matter would be the divine mind of man, which the Deity alone, by ano- ther special interposition could restore. To our minds the doctrine of special creation is an invidious, if not a very reprehensible one. To say that no new plant or micro- scopic being can come into existence without the special interposi- tion of the Deity, is idolatry of a worse kind than that of the heathen ; for while the heathen make their God capable of all things, from causing the rain to fall on their fields to saving their souls, we make a God for ourselves, and limit his powers^ to correspond with our finite knowledge. A man can make a machine which goes of itself if it is only wound up, and it does not again require his super- vision, but our God who has made his machine, requires continually to superintend and interpose in its progress. A man may invent a kaleidoscope which gives a never ending succession of new and beautiful forms and figures long after he is dead and buried, while the Deity must be present at the birth of every new form of life in the earth which he has himself made and peopled. A God which endowed matter from the beginning with properties which enabled it when in a certain condition to form new life, is certainly greater *Belfast Address. 4 DEWAR — ON SPONTANEOUS GENERATION. -I than one who had to interpose in every new crerition. The more grand, the more omniscient, and the more omnipotent our God is, the more worthy he is of our worship and adoration ; it ill becomes any-one, therefore, to detract from His glory, or to put any limit to His Majesty. It is denied by many that instances of spontaneous generation have ever taken place, but it is an undoubted fact, that wherever experiments have been performed, whether by Pasteur, Childe, Bastian or others, an-" whenever fair play has been given to the experiments and life has had a chance of budding, life has resulted. There are of course scores of men who conduct experiments in such a way that life has not a chance of exhibiting itself. They enter into the subject with a mind predisposed against the theory, and perform the most useless experiments under the most absurd conditions. They did not want to produce animals which lived under like conditions with ourselves, or the animals around us, but creations which would be subject to conditions which are imposed on no living thing. Because animals would not form in solutions known to be destructive to all animal life ; because animals could not be evolved with a body which would endure being boiled cr roasted ; because animals would not come to life in an atmosphere below zero, or could live without water, spontaneous generation was a farce ! Many also would mix up mineral substances alone, expecting an animal to result, when the only possible one would be of cast iron, rivetted and jointed with nuts, screws, and washers; they forgot that even such an animal — a locomotive for instance — requires fire, air, iind water, to set it in motion. These experi- ments by incapable or prejudiced chemists, do not, however, affect the main proposition — which, indeed, forces itself on everyone who has seen stale beef, cheese, fruit or vegetables — viz : that under favorable conditions, life will continually spring up spontaneously in matter. As our time is limited, and it is impossible for us to analyze the subject as we would like, we will confine ourselves to showing what life is, and if we can prove that the life which forms crystals and rocks and moves the compass needle, is the same as that which grows trees and moves our bodies, then we may consider our prem- "• i DEWAR — OTC SPONTANEOUS GENKRATION. ises proved, for as all organic beings are composed of so-called inorganic matter, and if the same life pervades both, what should prevent the life force from gathering several inorganic atoms, and growing them into an organic animal ? We do not say to grow into an elephant or a hippopotamus in a few days, but into a microscopic animal, having as much semblance of life as an oyster or a sponge. That these animals might, however, devclopc into creatures as large as elephants, if deposited in favourable situations, and left undis- turbed, is not only possible, but probable. Strange to say, although the origin of life has always been a fas- cinating one with philosophers, and the laws which regulate the physical and inorganic creaiion have allured the minds of an equal nu.nber of men, yet so far as we are aware, ..o one has ever attempted the very obvious problem of tracing the connection between the two. They have always been considered as two forces separated by a very wide gulf indeed, but if we only look at it in a common sense light, it is surely more in accordance with the grand workings of nature that there should be only one law of life or motion than that there should be several. In the first place what is life in the broadest acceptation of the term? We should think an}' movement or motion of bodies would be called life, for the only death that we can imagine is stillness. Secondly, is there such a thing as stillness, unchangeability or immovability in matter? None that we know of; even those physicists who deny that inorganic matter has life say that matter is possessed of motion, but what that motion is they do not under- stand, and they do not even hint at its affinity to organic life. Seeing then that all nature has motion or life, what in the third place is the lovvest form of it? Looking at any object around us, we see that there seems to be an attraction of like to like — for instance in a table or chair the woody fibre has such a strong tena- city, each atom for the other, that they cannot be separated except by force, as by fire or chemical action. Take iron, coal, stone, our bodies, or indeed anything, and this one fact stares us continu- ally in the face, that matter has ayi attraction for its like. Again, the lowest form of force we know of is magnetism. A piece of iron magnetised will attract other pieces of iron to it. But ■n 6 DEWAR OX SPONTANEOUS GENEUATIOX. r • besides this attraction there is also a repulsion, and thus we have become acquainted with the polarity of iron. If we break a magnet each piece has polarity, and if we break till we can break no longer, each piece will still exhibit polarity, and then we, as Tyndall says^ " prolong the intellectual vision to the polar molecules" and see them endowed also with polarity. This reasoning \\\\^ boon objected toby Tyndall's critics as unscientific, because, as one said, "by crossing the boundary of experimental evidence it is no longer in any sense a scientific conclusion," but we fail to see its unsoundness, and if such dedu'^itions are not ti) be aliovved, there is a limit put to all scientific investigation and first causes would never be discov- ered. If we thought the question worth arguing we could easily show that in all sciences wlioi direct evidence is iu)[)()ssible, an- alogical evidence is accepted. The world will not, we think, in this instance, subnut to be led by an anonymous critic, even although he is a contributor to Blackwood. The next form of force that we know of is in a plant or tree. We before drew the attention of the Institute to the great similarity between the force of a tree and the manner in wl»ieh the tree grew, to a maphyte — we find that if we cut it into innumerable pieces each piece will form another complete zoophyte, thus further resem- bling a magnet. The problem of the vital force of men and animals * As in breakin;? a maf^net also, oacli piece shows itself a complete ninguct ; so in plants or trees, each cutting shows itself also a complete magnet by growing. ^ r ! have lagnct )nger, 8ay8> tid see ijectcd , "by ijier in Illness, put to liscov- easily le, an- ink, in , even yc tree, nilarity . (rrew, re was ntre of other le iron world libition e were timn. pecu- 's leijs the life bod is life- pieces csem- Inimals In plants DEWAR ON 8PONTAXEOU8 GENERATION. 7 not being known either, we thought ourselves justified in also saying that the highest as well as the lowest development of life or force was magnetism. Furthermore, what is true of one magnet ought to be so with another. If then we are correct in saying that the molecules of an iron m.ignet have pohu'ity, the molecules of all plants and animals being magnets^ shon/d also have polarity. Again, as all minerals, rocks, etc., have a certain structural power which may be traced to magnetism, we make the broad assertion that all the atoms of matter in the earth have polarity. But it will be said this is only an assumption and nothing more, and as it cannot be proved, we may only take it for what it is worth. Yet strange as it may seem, nothing is easier of proof, and we do it in the follow- ing manner : We have said that in breaking a magnet each piece is found to be a separate magnet having polarity, but if we reverse the experi- ment, and incorpoi'ate a number of magnets into one, each magnet merges its individual polarity into the magnetism of the whole, and no matter what may be the size of the magnet, or the number of magnets incorporated with it, there can never be more than the two poles in it. This leads us, in passing, to say that if an argument holds good in one extreme, it ought to hold good in the other. Thus with regard to Tyndall's prolonging the intellectual vision to the polarity of the magnetic molecules, if such a deduction is not scientific because "it crosses the boundary of experimental evi- dence," then neither is it scientific to say, that if a million magnets were welded into one great magnet a mile long by half a mile broad, it would have only two poles, because such an experiment is beyond the experimental boundary ; yet no one would ever dream of doubting it. Strange also as it may seem, we have a real mag- net much larger than the imaginary one we have pictured, composed too of iiiTiumerable smaller m.ngnets ; but this anticipates the concluding proof to our magnetic or rather ato-magnetic theory of life, (for we include the atomic attraction of like to like in it, because the two forces are inseparable). We have said that the atoms of all iron are magnets ; we have also said that the atoms of all plants and animals arc magnets ; we have even hazarded the 9 DEWAR — ON SPONTANEOUS GENERATION. assertion that the atoms of all matter in earth, air anil sea, are magnets, and herein lies our proof of it. If all the atoms in the earth are magnets, then the earth itself ought to be one vast pon- derous magnet, with only two magnetic poles. And i» it so? The only answer is. Yes I . ' In conclusion, is not this as it should be, for where is the neces- sity for a multiplicity of forces when one is sufficient for the pur- pose. We enter a machine sliop, and amid tlic buzz of wheels and bands we see an engine in a corner running not only the small wheels, but turning the large fly-wheel as well ; or we look on our ha.bour and see the same power moving not only tiie pleasure steam- yacht but the ponderous iron-clad as well. If then such is the manner in which man accomplisiies his objects, if it is his endeavor in every force he controls to make it work not only small things but great, how much more should it be nature's mode to work in a similar way, for all man's highest efforts are but to imitate or to copy her, and it is not possible that the original should be less per- fect than the copy. . _ Spontaneous Generation, tliercfore, or the cause of it, is only one quoin stone in the arch which girdles the universe, without which nature herself would be incomplete, and in a state of chaos.