i 9 o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



influence of heat than similar elements of less highly vitalized cold- 

 blooded animals. Keeping these considerations in view, therefore, we 

 may see by the following figures how harmonious are the facts already 

 ascertained : 



TEMPERATURES AT WHICH DEATH OCCURS. 



Simple aquatic organisms are killed at 104-113 Fahr. 



(Spallanzani, Max Schultze, and Euhne.) 

 Tissue-elements of cold-blooded animal Frog... " " 104 



(Euhne.) 

 Tissue-elements of warm-blooded animal Man. . " " 111 



(Strieker and Kiihne.) 

 Tissue-elements of Plants tlrtica, Tradescantia, 



and Vallisneria " " 116^ -118^ 



(Max Schultze and Euhne.) 

 Eggs, Fungus-spores, and Bacteria-germs " " 122-140 



(Spallanzani, Liebig, Tarnowski, and others.) 



So far as we can ascertain by really scientific methods, free from 

 all obvious possibilities of misinterpretation, these are the tempera- 

 tures which undoubtedly kill the different varieties of that common 

 life-stuff known as Protoplasm the " physical basis of life," as it has 

 been termed by Prof. Huxley. That it should present this compara- 

 tive unity in its behavior toward heat as weir as to other physical 

 agencies, is surely not in antagonism with the most generally-approved 

 biological doctrines, of which Prof. Huxley has made himself the 

 most celebrated exponent in this country. In his own forcible lan- 

 guage he tells us as follows : " Beast and fowl, reptile and fish, mol- 

 lusk, worm, and polype, are all composed of structural units of the 

 same character, namely, masses of protoplasm with a nucleus. . . . 

 "What has been said of the animal world is no less true of plants. . . . 

 Protoplasm simple or nucleated is the formal basis of all life. . . . Thus 

 it becomes clear that all living powers are cognate, and all living forms 

 are fundamentally of one character." 1 



4. I now turn to say a very few words concerning the general 

 attitude and specific statements made by those who, wishing not to 

 give in their adherence to the fact of the occurrence of " spontaneous 

 generation," affect to believe that Bacteria-germs or other kinds of 

 living: matter can resist the influence of boiling- water. 



In the first place, it should be said that not one of these persons 

 has striven to justify his position by scientific evidence bearing direct- 

 ly upon the death-point of Bacteria and their germs, while several of 

 them have glaringly attempted to make good their position in the 

 most unscientific manner, that is, by adducing experiments admitting 

 of two interpretations as though they were instances only admitting 

 of one, and then of these two possible interpretations selecting that 



1 " Lay Sermons," pp. 126-129. 



