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THE ATMOSPHERIC-GERM THEORY

WE have heard much during the last week or two concerning the presence of organic matter in the atmosphere, and the degree to which this is filled with "germs" of living things. It would have been better, perhaps, had it been always pointed out more distinctly that the two expressions were by no means uniformly convertible. There is unquestionably much mere organic débris in the atmosphere which nobody could regard as germs of living things.

The transition, in the minds of many at the present day, however, from the idea of organic matter in the atmosphere, to the identification of this with germs of actual animal and vegetable organisms, occurs only too easily. The air is supposed by them to be teeming with potential living things most varied in kind. Each square foot of atmosphere is thought to contain representatives of innumerable varieties, which are only awaiting the advent of suitable conditions in order to commence their growth and development. Men talk most glibly about germ-theories of disease, and the share which germs take in the origin of epidemics, as though these were proven facts of science rather than, as they are at present, mere questionable hypotheses. And, just as these germ-theories concerning epidemic disease have grown out of the more general panspermic doctrine, so did this doctrine itself grow out of the great "spontaneous generation" controversy somewhat more than a century ago. As it was with the derived, so was it with the original doctrine : in each case it was produced, not so much on account of any direct evidence in favour of the existence of such germs, but rather on account of the inherent difficulty in the explanation of the subject to which it referred. Previous to the period mentioned, however, no such doctrine had been started. There were, of course, the old pantheistic doctrines of Anaxagoras and his followers-the notion of the universal diffusion of an active principle or vous pervading all things, which was itself the cause and source of all the life on our globe: there was also the doctrine of Leibnitz, concerning "Monads," as centres of force and life existing in all things; but anything like the present "panspermic" doctrine was still wanting.

The Aristotelian notions concerning the "spontaneous generation" of even complex living things, received a severe blow by the experimental demonstration of Rédi, in 1638, before one of the Italian academies. He showed that the larvæ found in putrefying flesh had been deposited there by flies, and had not been engendered (as had been previously supposed) by changes taking place in the flesh itself. Hence a very desirable modification of their views was necessitated on the part of the heterogenists. It was not, however, till about a century after this that the "spontaneous generation" doctrines were again prominently brought before the scientific world. Then, too, they appeared in a form more suited to our present notions. The long controversy carried on between Needham, the English champion of heterogeny, and the Abbé Spallanzani, resulted in the promulgation by the latter of the celebrated "panspermic" doctrine. The

question pressing for solution was, What is the mode of origin of the myriads of the lowest forms of life which so soon teem in organic solutions? According to Needham many of these lowest living things had been evolved de novo owing to changes taking place in the organic matter of the infusion; according to Spallanzani they had been ultimately derived from "germs" which, floating everywhere in the atmosphere, had, in spite of all precautions, gained access to the solutions. Spallanzani did not pretend that he had seen these "germs," their existence was a mere postulation and no other evidence of their reality was alleged than the occurrence of the very phenomena which their presence was supposed to explain. His position was interpretable in this way. He seemed to think that such new evolution of life was impossible. If living things occurred, therefore, they must have originated from pre-existing germs. Against unchangeable convictions of this kind, occurring either then or now, of course no amount of experimental evidence would be of any avail. Spallanzani preferred to believe that the atmosphere carried with it everywhere myriads of germs of elementary organisms, or, at all events, sundry principes préorganisés, invisible and imaginary though they might be. On this subject he says* "The infusorial animalcules undoubtedly take origin, in the first place, from certain principes préorganisés; but these principes, are they eggs, germs, or other similar corpuscles?" To which he most honestly adds :-" If it is necessary to offer facts in reply to this question, I frankly acknowledge that we have no certain knowledge on the subject."

Bonnet was the contemporary of Spallanzani, and he was also the advocate of a doctrine similar in its tendency, though infinitely more extravagant. Bonnet's leading notion of the "embôitement des germes" is thus illustrated in one of the earlier chapters of his work + :-"The sun, a million times larger than the earth, has for an ultimate constituent a globule of light, of which several thousand millions enter at once into the eye of an animal twenty million times smaller than a flesh worm.... But reason can penetrate even further. From this globule of light it can see issue another universe having its sun, its planets, its plants, its animals, and amongst these last an animalcule which is to this new world what that, of which I have just spoken, is to the world which we inhabit." Now, it would certainly be wrong to restrain any man in the exercise of his fancy, but it surely is deplorable when we find the results of such exercise-such mere figments of the imagination as this-warping the reasonings of succeeding generations when they come gravely to argue about questions of fact.

Such, then, has been the origin of the "panspermic doctrine. Its first supporters commenced with assumptions, which could only be supported by the occurrence of the very phenomena that were the subjects in dispute, and to explain which the assumptions had been started. This was the doctrine of which M. Pasteur first attempted the experimental verification. How far he succeeded in the attempt is another question. On the part of those who first promulgated the "panspermic" doctrine, there certainly was nothing but mere fancy and hypothesis.

* Opuscles de Physiques, animale et végétale. Pavie, 1787. Tom. I. p. 230.

+ Considerations sur les Corps Organisées. Amsterdam: 1772.

ENGLISH SPORT IN THE FIFTEENTH
CENTURY

The Debate between the Heralds of France and England.
Translated and edited by Henry Pyne. (London:
Longmans and Co. 1870.)

IT

T is not easy to obtain an accurate knowledge of the fauna of England before the sixteenth century, or to ascertain with anything like precision the distribution of wild animals throughout our country. Contemporary authorities are few, and allusions in them to the facts of Natural History are vague and scanty: vague enough to whet our curiosity, and rare enough to augment the interest attaching to them. We are, therefore, grateful when we can derive from any fresh and well-accredited source a side-light upon this obscure subject, and such we seem to have found in a few incidental remarks that occur in a very early tract, bearing the unsuggestive title of "A Debate between the Heralds of France and England." This debate, now for the first time translated into English, appears from internal evidence to have been written by Charles, Duke of Orleans, about the year 1460, and to have been first published in Paris in 1500. Its author, taken prisoner at the battle of Agincourt, was detained in England for some five-and-twenty years, dividing the period of his captivity between London and the Castles of Windsor, Pontefract, Ampthill, Bolingbroke, and Wingfield. To a man of quick observation, as the Duke undoubtedly was, this lengthened exile gave ample opportunity of forming a tolerably correct opinion of the relative merits of the land of his birth and the land of his captivity. Patriotism has, of course, occasionally coloured his views, but on the whole his judgments are wonderfully impartial, and his statements may be accepted with very little qualification. It must, however, be borne in mind that the Duke's acquaintance with England was almost wholly confined to the eastern side, which has very little in common with the rest of the country, and has probably undergone far fewer changes in later times. Thus, in his estimate of the capabilities of our country for sporting purposes, he makes the English Herald say: “England is a level country, well cultivated, and not covered with trees or bushes, which might hinder the game from being easily found and caught; and it has also many partridges, quails, and other birds, as well as hares in great abundance. And with regard to the sport of fowling, no one can imagine a more delightful country, for there are numerous little streams which flow into the great rivers, where it is a fine thing, during the season, to see what a profusion there is of wild fowl." This description is true enough of the eastern counties, especially if we understand the term "wild fowl" to include snipes, plovers, bitterns, and other fen-haunting birds. But, in lauding the superior merits of French sport, the Duke gives some further details, which are not without their value, as illustrating what we may call the antiquarian side of Natural History. "In France," he remarks, "we have not only all the wild animals which you (English) have, as stags, roes, and deer, but we have many other animals for the chase besides these for we have wild boars or wild black swine, and we have also wolves and foxes, while you have none." Now, it is hardly necessary to observe that the popular story of the extermination of wolves in England by Edward I. must be received with some reservation.

There seems some ground to believe that in the valley of the Findhorn, in Scotland, wolves have bred as late as the seventeenth century, and that even in the wilder parts of England-the fells of Yorkshire, and the forest of Dartmoor-they have existed in the fifteenth, and perhaps in the sixteenth century, if we are to give any credence to local traditions. Certain it is that in 1280, John Giffard, the Baron of Brimsfield, had license from King Edward to hunt wolves with dogs and nets in all forests in England; we have also little doubt that a diligent search through the public records would disclose similar grants of later date. Some ten years ago a young wolf was caught in a vermin-trap at Ongar, in Essex, but its occurrence was explained by the fact that the master of a neighbouring hunt had recently imported some fox-cubs from France, and that the wolf had been included in the hamper by mistake. The comparatively small amount of woodland and covert in the East of England would render the breeding of wolves, to any extent, an impossibility, and in a less degree the same remark applies to foxes also. Fox-hunting, in the modern sense of that term, is a sport of recent growth, and such a thing as the preservation of foxes for hunting purposes cannot boast of any antiquity at all. Gervase Markham, indeed, classes the hunting of the fox and the badger together, and describes them as chases of a great deal lesse use or cunning than stag and hare-hunting, because they are of a much hotter scent, and are not so much desired as the rest,”—an observation which may be balanced by the French Herald's remark, that wolves and foxes "are bloodthirsty animals, so that it requires persons of great courage to overcome them." Wild swine in England were either destroyed or domesticated at a very early period. Pannage was too valuable a privilege to be otherwise than jealously guarded against such unwelcome intruders. Charles I, turned out in the New Forest some boars and sows which he had imported from Germany, and fifty years ago their descendants might be recognised by the smallness of their hind-quarters and greater development of sinew.

The next position asserted by the French Herald in the Debate, if true at the time, has since been curiously reversed. He claims precedence for his country, not only in respect of hares and game-birds generally, but especially or exclusively for the great red-legged or Grecian partridges, and an abundance of pheasants. Hares have always been common in England, but the prevalence of red-legged partridges throughout the stubbles has not been a long-standing grievance to the Suffolk sportsman, for, if Pennant be right, they were introduced from France, as late as the year 1770, and, perhaps from their dislike to a humid soil and atmosphere, have never spread themselves far inland.

With regard to English pheasants, the Duke's experience must, we think, have been exceptionally unfortunate. The bills of fare, in olden times, invariably make mention of them, and Mr. Pyne refers to a statute passed in 1494, prohibiting their destruction by unlicensed persons, and clearly implying that they were common enough. Goshawks and tercelets for hawking purposes were, no doubt, imported from France in the fifteenth century-the accuracy of the French Herald's statement on this point being confirmed by several passages in the Paston Letters.