378 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 



Such was the very definite statement made by M. 

 Pasteur on the faith of a chain of evidence of which 

 almost every link is ambiguous. He did not even 

 allude to the desirability of making direct observations 

 upon this subject. They lend not the least support 

 to his assumption, however; on the contrary, they go 

 to confirm the rule which had hitherto been generally 

 admitted, as to the inability of any of these lower 

 organisms to live after an exposure for even a few 

 seconds in a fluid raised to a temperature of 2i2F. 

 I have again and again boiled neutral and alkaline 

 infusions containing very active Bacteria and Vibrlones^ 

 and the result has always been a more or less complete 

 disruption of the Vibrlo-nes^ and the disappearance of 

 all unmistakeable signs of life in the Bacteria } . All 

 their peculiarly vital movements have at once ceased, 

 and it has been shown by the evidence detailed in the 

 last chapter, that these organisms and any ^erms,' 

 visible or invisible 2 , by which they multiply, have been 

 really killed by an exposure to even a much lower 

 degree of heat. 



1 The results with neutral hay infusions have not seemed to differ at 

 all from those which were obtained with slightly acid turnip infusions, 

 or solutions of ammonic tartrate and sodic phosphate. See p. 318 and 

 p. 332, note I. It seems a vague supposition to imagine that either Bacteria 

 or Vibriones have germs which are in any way differently endowed from 

 themselves. In common with other primitive living things, they are 

 only known to multiply by fission or gemmation. The separated por- 

 tions, however minute, would always resemble the parent structure, of 

 which, indeed, they are unaltered fragments. 



2 See p. 332. 



