To J. D. Hooker 1 February [1871]
Summary
Returns pamphlets.
B. T. Lowne’s observation [Mon. Microsc. J. 4 (1870): 326–30] that boiling does not kill certain moulds is curious, but then how account for absence of all living things in Pasteur’s experiment?
Always delighted to see a word in favour of Pangenesis.
Thiselton-Dyer’s paper ["On spontaneous generation and evolution", Q. J. Microsc. Sci. 10 (1870): 333–54] is Spencerian.
The chemical conditions for first production of life are said to exist at present, but in some warm little pond today such matter would be absorbed or devoured, which would not have been the case before living creatures were formed.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 1 Feb [1871] |
Classmark: | DAR 94: 188–9 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7471 |