ORIGIN OF LO WEST OX GA NISMS. 4 1 



describes in any flask, in fact, which had been her- 

 metically sealed during the ebullition of a suitable fluid 

 within ; this was deemed to be a result so contradic- 

 tory to the explanations of M. Pasteur, that it appeared 

 needless to add my testimony, as I could have done, 

 to that of M. Victor Meunier and others, as to the 

 different results obtainable by operating, in M. Pas- 

 teur's fashion, with different fluids. It seemed to me 

 that if organisms were to be procured in flasks from 

 which air had been altogether expelled, it was useless 

 still to urge the preservative virtues of any process of 

 filtration of air with the object of showing that living 

 things in infusions derived their origin from atmo- 



o <--> 



spheric germs. Obviously, if there were no atmosphere, 

 there could be no atmospheric germs present ; and if 

 living things were, nevertheless, developed under these 

 exclusive circumstances, how could M. Pasteur or his 

 disciples still expect to convince others that the first 

 living things in infusions always proceeded from pre- 

 existing atmospheric germs even although it could 

 be shown, that in many cases, when these were fil- 

 tered off by flasks with narrow and tortuous necks, no 

 living things were developed in such fluids. Granting 

 to the full the truth of such facts, they could do 

 nothing to establish the doctrine of the origin of infu- 

 sorial life from pre-existing atmospheric germs, so long 

 as it could also be shown that living things might be 

 developed in boiled solutions to which air, instead of 

 being filtered, was never allowed to enter at all. 



