392 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 



But, alter reflection on this subject, it seemed to me 

 quite within the range of piobability, that the difference 

 between acid and alkaline solutions as regards the 

 number of organisms which are to be found in them, 

 when they have been simply exposed to ordinary 

 atmospheric conditions, might be exaggerated after they 

 had been subjected to the temperature at which water 

 boils. It seemed quite possible that high temperatures 

 might be more destructive to organic matter contained 

 in acid solutions than when it existed in alkaline 

 solutions. Since the acid seems to exercise a certain 

 noxious influence even at ordinary temperatures, so 

 it may be conceived that this influence, whatever 

 its nature, may be increased in intensity with the rise 

 of temperature, and with the consequent greater facility 

 for the display of chemical affinities. Hot acids will 

 frequently dissolve metals which would remain un- 

 affected by them at ordinary temperatures; and chemical 

 affinities generally, are notably exalted by an increased 

 amount of heat. Since the addition of an acid, there- 

 fore, to a previously neutral or slightly alkaline fluid 

 containing organic matter in solution, appears to 

 alter its character in some mysterious way, we may 

 assume that its action upon the unstable organic 

 molecules goes on increasing in intensity, as the fluid 

 becomes hotter. Thus, when two portions of a solution 

 containing organic matter the one neutral and the 

 other acid have been raised to a temperature of 212 F, 

 the organic matter of the one has been injured only 



