increasing attention of scientific men, but has been pushed forward by an unprecedented refinement of experimental investigation. The researches recently carried out may have settled it, or they may not, as further determinations and verifications will show; but, whatever may be the fact on this point, the inquiry has certainly been remarkably narrowed, and the whole subject placed in a new attitude, which gives better promise of a decisive solution. Dr. Bastian, as is well understood, is a leading representative of the doctrine of the spontaneous origin of the lowest living forms. He has made an extensive series of delicate and ingenious experiments which, he holds, establish the principle, and which are freely admitted to give the problem a new aspect; and in his elaborate two-volumed work on the "Beginnings of Life," and his subsequent volume on "Evolution and the Origin of Life," he has given us the most comprehensive exposition we have of the philosophy and present position of this highly interesting and important question.
Henry Charlton Bastian was born at Truro, in Cornwall, April 26, 1837. His father, a merchant, died while the son was quite young. He was educated at a private school in Falmouth; and, when about eighteen years of age, began the study of medicine with an uncle, who was a leading medical man of the town of Falmouth.
Young Bastian had already begun to acquire strong tastes for natural-history studies, principally in the direction of botany and marine zoology; these tastes having been much stimulated and encouraged by a retired London surgeon, Mr. W. P. Cocks, who had for some years energetically devoted himself to the fauna and flora of Falmouth and its neighborhood. Dr. Bastian recognizes a profound indebtedness to this gentleman for his influence in urging him to independent inquiry, inciting him to accept nothing on mere authority. During the three years of young Bastian's apprenticeship to his uncle, besides preparing for the matriculation examination of the University of London, he made a special study of botany, and in 1856 published "A Flora of Falmouth and Surrounding Parishes." His educational career was brilliant, and among the numerous university honors which he received may be mentioned the gold medal in botany; the gold medal in comparative anatomy; the gold medal in anatomy and physiology; the gold medal in pathological anatomy; and the gold medal in medical jurisprudence. He took his degree of M. D. in 1866, and became Fellow of the Royal Society in 1868. In 1860, Dr. Bastian became Assistant Curator of the Museum of Anatomy and Pathology under Prof. Sharpey. This office was retained for three years. In 1863, principally on account of his liking for cerebral physiology and philosophical subjects generally, he decided to devote himself to the study of insanity, with the view of becoming a consultant in London in this department of medicine. At the end of 1863 he went as assistant medical officer to the newly-opened State
