THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 469 



tions were exposed to still higher temperatures. In 

 fourteen of these they were heated to a temperature 

 ranging as high as 327F (i64C) for four hours, 

 whilst in the other six they were maintained at a 

 temperature of 464 F (240 C) for one hour 1 . Some 

 only of each set have been opened, but all of these 

 were wholly devoid of living things. The infusions 

 of hay and turnip which have been heated to the 

 lower temperature of 327 F were almost hopelessly 

 changed by this amount of heat. When taken from 

 the digester, the previously clear and colourless turnip 

 infusions, for instance, were of a brownish-black colour ; 

 owing to the abundant presence of granules and flakes 

 of charred organic matter, which, after complete sub- 

 sidence, occupied a space equal in bulk to one-fourth 

 of the supernatant brown fluid. Infusions of hay were 



1 The latter tubes had been sealed in the blow-pipe flame during the 

 ebullition of their contained fluids. Each was then placed in a very 

 thick iron tube, whose internal diameter was only slightly larger than 

 the glass, and into which some of the experimental fluid was also poured. 

 Each iron tube was fitted with a screw-cap, which was firmly fastened by 

 means of long iron wrenches, whilst the tube itself was secured in a vice. 

 The hermetically sealed glass tube was thus enclosed within a her- 

 metically closed iron tube, and by putting the same kind of fluid within 

 each, an equal pressure was ensured upon the inner and the outer surfaces 

 of the glass. All the tubes were then placed in an iron vessel containing 

 five quarts of the very best French Colza oil, which was maintained, by 

 means of gas burners, at a temperature of 464 F for one hour. Although 

 the oil did not boil, the vapours which were given off at this temperature 

 were most disagreeable and suffocating, and made me feel faint and giddy 

 for several hours afterwards. Oils of inferior quality are not available, 

 because they actually boil at much lower temperatures. 



Hh 3 



