42 ORIGIN OF LOWEST ORGANISMS. 



It is not, therefore, because I think that some of the 

 experiments which will subsequently be related afford 

 any stronger or more direct support to my own con- 

 clusions, but because I think they may do this indi- 

 rectly by shaking the faith of many in some of the 

 reasonings of M. Pasteur that I am induced to give 

 an account of them.* 



What has been hitherto said, also applies to the more 

 recent statements concerning the efficacy of cotton-wool 

 as an agent for filtering germs from the atmosphere. 

 Prof. Huxley says he has never seen putrefaction or 

 fermentation occur after certain organic fluids have 

 been boiled for ten or fifteqn minutes, if a good plug 

 of cotton-wool has been inserted into the neck of the 

 flask in which they are contained whilst ebullition is 

 going on, and has, subsequently, been allowed to remain 

 in the same situation. Using other or perhaps stronger 

 fluids, however, I have found that such a method of 

 proceeding is by no means adequate to stop the growth 

 and development of organisms. And, also, even if it 

 had been always efficacious the reason adduced 

 could not hold good, in the face of my other experi- 

 ments, which had shown that a development of life 

 might o;o on in cases where the air, which had been 



o o 



similarly driven out, was subsequently, in place of 



* If his reasonings can be shown to be quite inconclusive, 

 and if his results can be otherwise explained, some people may, 

 at last, begin to recognize that their blind and mistaken faith 



M. Pasteur's work has been somewhat misplaced. 



