BIOLOGY. 267 



of the particles of the organic substances in which they are found, 

 without any action of parent Vibrios or Bacteria ; and this ap- 

 pears to be what is specially termed heterogeny ; thirdly, that 

 there existed in these organic substances, germs which had pro- 

 ceeded from parent Vibrios and Bacterias, but too minute for 

 optical appreciation, and that their generation was therefore nor- 

 mal. The supporters of heterogeny rely on the impossibility of 

 accounting for the appearance of the Vibrios and Bacterias in any 

 other manner ; for they say that although you treat the medium 

 by heat in a hermetically closed vessel, in such a manner as to 

 destroy all germs and intercept all access, still these beings ap- 

 pear. This their opponents deny, if the experiments are con- 

 ducted with proper care. So it was 7 years ago, and so it is 

 still, although the experiments have been frequently repeated in 

 this country, in France, and in North America, almost always 

 with varying results. All reasoning by analogy is still in favor 

 of reproduction from a parent ; but heterogeny has of late ac- 

 quired partisans, especially in Germany, among those who are 

 prepared to break down the barriers which separate living beings 

 from inorganic bodies. O. Bentliam. Nature. 



PROFESSOR TYNDALL. 



Professor Tyndall's most recent contribution to the "germ 

 theory" is contained in a letter to the " Times" of the 7th instant. 

 He has observed that the air breathed out of the lungs, especially 

 at the close of a long voluntary exhalation, is " visibly pure," or 

 produces, when passed across a strong beam of light, the familiar 

 black smoke-like clouds caused by the entire absence of organic 

 matter. He confirms the explanation given by many medical 

 men, and especially by Professor J. Lister, of Edinburgh, for the 

 exclusion of air from fresh wounds, that the putrefaction of 

 wounds is caused by the germination of the germs of organic life 

 contained, under ordinary circumstances, in large numbers in the 

 air. In a reply to this letter in the " Times," Dr. H. C. Bastian 

 makes the startling assertion that, in conjunction with Dr. Frank- 

 land, he has met with living organisms in hermetically sealed ves- 

 sels, from which all air had been removed, and after the contained 

 fluids had been raised to a very high temperature. Some solu- 

 tions containing organic matter and other ingredients were pre- 

 pared in the following manner: After a perfect vacuum, above 

 the level of the fluid, had been procured in the glass vessels by 

 means of Sprengel's air-pump, the drawn-out necks of the flasks 

 were closed by means of the blow-pipe flame. The airless flasks, 

 containing then the fluid itself as the only possible germ-con- 

 taining material, were submitted, in a suitable apparatus, by Pro- 

 fessor Franklancl, to a temperature varying from 148 C. to 152 P 

 C. for 4 hours, and yet, after having been placed under the influ- 

 ence of suitable conditions, in the course of a few weeks, living 

 organisms many of them altogether new and strange were 

 found in these fluids. These extremely important results are 

 about to be communicated to the Royal Society. Nature. 



