462 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



But it has been shown that the monad has germs, and that these 

 have a power of resisting heat up to 300 Fahr. that is to say, 25 

 Fahr. hi-her than that to which Dr. Bastian's infusion was exposed 

 and therefore, by the logic of facts, the monads found were not a re- 

 sult of " spontaneous generation," but were the natural outcome of a 

 genetic product contained in the infusion, and which the heat employed 

 could not destroy. 



We need no stronger proof of the futility of reasoning concerning 

 the thermal death-point of a minute organism where developmental 

 history is wholly unknown. Yet so confident is our experimenter of 

 his result that he says : " Nothing that has yet been alleged, by way 

 of objection to the admission of spontaneous generation as an every- 

 day fact, at all affects such experiments as these. The shortest way 

 out of the difficulty would, therefore, be to doubt the facts." But I 

 think I have shown a still shorter way " out of the difficulty," and 

 that without the discourtesy of doubting Dr. Bastian's experimental 

 " facts." 



The truth, then, is that Dr. Bastian had no real knowledge of the 

 monad ; but he argued as if he had. Hence assumed premises led to 

 a false and fatal conclusion. 



He is simply repeating this in his latest attitude in reference to 

 the question of the mode of origin of bacteria. Compelled to yield 

 all else, he throws up a rampart round his exceptional flasks, and de- 

 clares u spontaneous generation " to be impregnable an inviolable 

 law of Nature. Dr. Tyndall is plainly told that his knowledge is 

 insufficient, that he has mistaken the meaning of the question, and that 

 his mode of treating it is " laughable ; " ' and all this arises from the 

 fact that Prof. Tyndall dealt with the question of the mode of origin 

 of bacteria generally ; whereas, to have pleased Dr. Bastian, he ought 

 to have explained some exceptional conditions to which he now points 

 the exceptions being more important than the rule ! 



What are the facts ? 



1. Dr. Tyndall has proved, in connection with a host of others, but 

 in a more definite and precise manner, that in filtered infusions five 

 minutes' boiling does kill every form of bacteria. 



2. He has further shown that they are propagated by demon- 

 strable germs only, in such infusions ; and 



3. This fact removes the probability of their spontaneous gen- 

 eration to an almost infinite distance. 



As to the development of bacteria in infusions charged with solid 

 matter, precise experiment of a sufficiently comprehensive character 

 has yet to be made on them, in relation to the demonstrated germs. 

 Meantime, shall we accept " spontaneous generation " on such ground 

 as its strongest advocate has now to offer, and ignore the vast chain 

 of facts copiously attested and controlled, which are in perfect har- 



1 Lancet, February 5, 1876, and British Medical Journal, February 5, 1876. 



