398 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 



in favour of conclusions based upon evidence which is 

 comparatively worthless : and, by such illogical methods, 

 M. Pasteur proclaims that he has c mathematically 

 demonstrated' the truth of his own views. Un- 

 fortunately for the cause of truth, many have been 

 only too much blinded by his skill and precision as a 

 mere experimenter. 



An attempt has been made to show the incon- 

 clusiveness of M. Pasteur's mode of reasoning on this 

 point, principally with the view of preventing similar 

 deductions being drawn from observations and experi- 

 ments of the same nature by subsequent workers. Other- 

 wise it would not have been at all necessary. For so 

 far from there being any truth in M. Pasteur's assump- 

 tion that Bacteria and their germs are not killed in 

 slightly alkaline or neutral fluids raised to a temperature 

 of 2i2F, we have found that experiment and observa- 

 tion alike seem to show that they are killed when 

 such fluids are raised for two or three minutes to a 

 temperature of 140 F. Nay, more, taking M. Pasteur 

 even upon his own ground using boiled acid infusions, 

 in which he admits that all germs of preexisting life 

 are killed- -we find, nevertheless, as others have 

 found, that such infusions, contained within heated 

 and hermetically-sealed flasks, will speedily become 

 turbid, owing to the presence of multitudes of living 

 organisms. 



There being no valid reasons, therefore, for our belief 

 in the assumption that Bacteria^ Vibriones^ and their 



