studying the corona. The telescope should be accurately driven by clockwork, and a dark iris-disc, if one may so describe an arrangement which would be the converse of an iris-diaphragm, might be employed with advantage to hide the light of the prominences and chromosphere. If the field of view were several degrees in diameter, and the dark disc at the beginning of totality concealed a circular space extending a degree or so beyond the eclipsed sun, the observer might first examine with great advantage the outer parts of the corona, and gradually extend his scrutiny to the very neighbourhood of the prominences."

A question of extreme importance, which seems fairly within the range of the available modes of research, consists in the determination whether the outer and extremely faint parts of the corona show any sign of prolongation towards those regions where, as we know, the zodiacal light extends. The whole of that portion of the heavens along which (speaking with reference to the place of the sun) the zodiacal light is ordinarily visible, is above the horizon during most total eclipses. Further, the dark region corresponding to the place occupied by the moon's shadow in our atmosphere, extends at the beginning and end of totality over a very wide range of sky, first on the western and then on the eastern side of the lunar disc. Along this region the faint glow of the zodiacal light ought to be perceptible if sought for under favourable circumstances. Among such circumstances are, of course, a clear sky and an elevated station. But there is one condition which, so far as we know, has never yet been attended to. The maximum darkness of a solar eclipse comes on so rapidly that the eye is yet dazzled by the light when totality is in progress. Nor does totality last long enough for the eye to acquire the power of recognizing faint differences of illumination. This fact serves to explain the failure of observers, hitherto, in detecting the delicate phenomenon we are now considering. There appears to be good reason for believing that the search would be conducted with a much better prospect of success if the observer who undertook it were in the first place to keep his eyes as much as possible in darkness until totality had fairly commenced; and in the second, to hide the whole of the corona from view while searching for the zodiacal light. This could be very easily managed by arranging beforehand a black disc so as to conceal the sun at the time of totality from an eye placed at a certain aperture, through which the observer should conduct his search, during totality, for the faint light along the ecliptic. This method seems so promising, and the inquiry itself is so full of interest, that we cannot but hope some observer will be willing to devote himself specially to this particular subject.

But we may safely expect from those who have volunteered to take part in an expedition which will probably be by no means a

pleasure trip (remembering the season and the nature of the voyage) the thoughtful consideration beforehand of all those means by which the expedition may be made successful. They will be fully aware that the astronomical world will expect from them something more than the renewal and confirmation of former observations. We may hope from them therefore results of extreme interest, throwing new light on important problems of solar physics, and perchance even revealing unexpected truths respecting the economy of the solar system itself.

VI. THE CONTROVERSY ON SPONTANEOUS
GENERATION: WITH RECENT EXPERIMENTS.

By JAMES SAMUELSON, Editor.

THERE is perhaps no biological question, excepting the origin of species, which has been so warmly debated in England and abroad, as the mode in which the lowest known types of animal and plant life come into existence, and probably one reason why these inquiries have been productive of so much excitement, is their indirect theological bearing.

The developmental theory recently elucidated by the researches and arguments of Darwin gave a fatal blow to the ancient beliefs concerning the first appearance and presence of the animal and plant races on the earth's surface, and rendered unnecessary the special intervention of the Creator to account for the production of new species; whilst the hypothesis of spontaneous generation, or the creation de novo, in organic infusions of the lowest known types of plants and animals in our time, seems, to impetuous and superficial thinkers, to put the divine influence altogether out of sight, and almost to degrade what have hitherto been regarded as living beings and vital forces to a level with the unconscious physical forces and inert forms of matter.

With these considerations, however, scientific men have no concern, and whether or not the creation of a living thing from organic or inorganic materials, by what may be termed artificial means, be regarded as a sacrilege, the investigation must be undertaken without apprehension or prejudice, and the verdict given, not by theology or theologians, but on the evidence of strict experimental research, and from unprejudiced inductive reasoning.

Scientific men being, as a rule, regarded as ruthless iconoclasts, anxious only to lacerate the feelings and undermine the most sacred aspirations of true believers, it may be supposed that these remarks are prefatory to an argument intended to overturn all our preconceived views as to the higher nature of life, and to hand over the

Z the Whitemar. & Bass, Landon

Organisms found in infusion of Orangejuice, and in pure Rain Water.

task of creating living beings to the chapter of accidents and to the blind physical forces of nature. My task is, however, not of such a painful character. In the first place, it must be remembered that if it should turn out that living beings are capable of springing into existence through the direct transformation of decaying organic matter, those beings are, so to speak, merely the instruments upon which the higher psychical faculties play; from dust they come and to dust they return. And again, every advanced thinker is prepared to admit that even the higher races which animate, beautify, or transform the earth's surface, are fed, grow, and decay through the direct operation of the physical forces, and that they are exquisitely constructed machines, liable to injury, accident, and destruction, and need fuel and reparation just as any humanly-constructed mechanism. What difference, then, can it make to any but the most timid or bigoted thinkers whether the first appearance of the lowest types of animal and plant life is due to the direct action of the physical forces upon matter which has once been organized and is undergoing decomposition, or to the same forces or some unknown modification of them acting in the first instance in or upon almost inconceivably minute pre-existing germs?

I can, however, offer to such timid philosophers the crumb of comfort, that it is not unlikely the ultimate result of the discussion which now agitates the scientific world will be to show that the lowest known living types are not now created de novo, but that their germs are almost omnipresent and ineradicable; and this conclusion has been arrived at by me, not from the experiments with varying and contradictory results which have been tried by different investigators, but from a calm consideration of the whole question, renewed at intervals, over a space of nearly fifteen years.

And this reflection causes me to draw attention to a peculiar circumstance connected with the controversy on spontaneous generation; namely, that we hardly ever hear of the work of any observer extending over a lengthened period. In most cases we have a set of experiments tried by an investigator of greater or less eminence now a zoologist, then a chemist, which are published along with his views, usually of a very decided and dogmatic character, and then he rushes out of the arena, and we hear nothing more of him on that subject. Of course he has settled the question to his own satisfaction and to the satisfaction of those who agree with him, and there is no need of further investigation until some new circumstance or some fresh set of experiments invalidates all previous evidence and raises up a new host of combatants and disciples on either side.

We are at present in the very thick of such an intellectual contest, and no doubt there are many true believers in heterogenesis who regard as conclusive the recently-published experiments and observations of Dr. Bastian which have startled the boldest thinkers and