28 THE ORIGIN OF LIFE 



the basis of their negative results, came to the con- 

 clusion not only that there was no evidence that 

 living matter could arise independently they went 

 further, and more or less loudly proclaimed 

 that spontaneous generation was a vain or idle 

 fancy. 



What, then, is to be said if, dealing with 

 solutions containing only inorganic materials, con- 

 tained in hermetically-sealed vessels, and exposing 

 them to degrees of heat that have been shown to 

 be fatal to every known living thing, simple organ- 

 isms nevertheless appear again and again within 

 the tubes always of approximately similar kinds, 

 and of kinds well-known to be killed at tempera- 

 tures only a little more than half as high as that 

 to which the experimental vessels and their fluids 

 had been originally exposed? 



The mode of experimentation cannot now be 

 repudiated or deemed inadequate. It is the same 

 as that formerly employed, and from whose nega- 

 tive results the belief has been widely spread 

 through the scientific world that spontaneous gen- 

 eration is a myth. If, then, in other experiments, 

 of a similar kind except that inorganic materials 

 have been employed, and that the initial destruc- 

 tive temperature has been much higher and such 



