26 SPONTANEOUS GENERATION. 



been described, develop in the putrid mass. If left to the action 

 of time the whole fluid would eventually resolve itself into the 

 ultimate chemical elements C, H, O, N, (see pages 7 and 8) ; 

 but this was not desirable in these experiments. Under these 

 decomposing conditions we may see one of Nature's modes 

 of reproducing or rather generating new forms of life by spon- 

 taneity. 



Professor Wyman has since been so kind as to show me some 

 other experiments which prove that these same bodies which are 

 developed in the sealed flasks, are killed at a point far below 

 that of boiling water. He placed large quantities of each kind, 

 viz : Vibrios, Bacteriums, Kolpodas, &c., each in a separate test 

 tube, and each tube with a thermometer in a water-bath, and 

 applying heat to the bath, he examined, from time to time, as 

 the temperature was raised, portions of each set with the micro- 

 scope. Some of the animalculse survived the heat up to 125, 

 and others up to 130, but in no instance did any of them live 

 when the temperature was raised to 150, which is sixty-two 

 degrees below boiling, 212. You will recollect that in all of the 

 experiments with the sealed flasks, the fluid was raised to the 

 boiling point, 212, and in some of them it was raised still 

 higher, in one case to 250, which is 38 above boiling, or 100 

 above the temperature at which these animalcules can live. In 

 another instance the flask was heated to 307, which is 95 above 

 boiling, or 157 above what these creatures can live in. 



The fact that the experiments with the sealed flasks proved, 

 if anything can be proved beyond the reach of change or im- 

 provement, that beings with motion, undoubted living beings, 

 were produced where life could not possibly have existed pre- 

 viously, is a sufficient basis for the further assumption that still 

 higher forms could arise from these. That is to say, if, under 

 the conditions arranged in the sealed flasks, living beings, either 

 animals or plants, of the lowest degree arise, there is nothing 

 illogical in assuming that from these lowly organized, animate 

 bodies somewhat higher and more complicated beings may 

 originate. Keeping these exoeriments in view let us now return 



