FURTHER EXPERIMENTS ON THE ORIGIN 

 OF LIFE QUESTION WITH CERTAIN 

 SUPERHEATED SALINE SOLUTIONS IN 

 HERMETICALLY-SEALED VESSELS 



CHAPTER I 



INTRODUCTION 



AUGUST WEISMANN, in his work on The Evolu- 

 tion Theory, after referring to the observations of 

 Pasteur concerning the prevalence of germs in the 

 air, arid the fact that his experiments tended to 

 show that their exclusion from boiled organic in- 

 fusions caused such infusions to remain barren, 

 makes the following remarks : * 



Strangely enough, these and similar experiments 

 were at the time regarded as conclusive proof against 

 the existence of spontaneous generation, though it is 

 obvious enough that the first living being on the earth 

 cannot have sprung from hay, or from any other or- 

 ganic substance, since that would presuppose what 



1 Loe. cit. t translation, 1904, vol. ii., p. 366. 



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