LOUIS PASTEUR. 239 



additional experiments, with the result that although Dr. 

 Bastian made a most gallant fight in support of the theory 

 of spontaneous generation or abiogenesis, and displayed 

 wonderful ingenuity and ability in its defence, he had 

 ultimately to succumb, and it is probable that in scientific 

 circles Pasteur's demonstrations were more fully accepted 

 as conclusive in this country than in France, and certainly 

 than in Germany, although here Cohn attacked the 

 theory of spontaneous generation with the greatest energy 

 and success. It was at this point that Lister conceived the 

 idea of his now famous antiseptic treatment. He argued that 

 if these germs were necessary for fermentation and for putre- 

 faction, and if they could only be developed from pre-existing 

 germs, might it not be possible by means of mechanical 

 and chemical appliances to prevent their gaining access to 

 wounds in which they must necessarily be the cause of the 

 putrefactive processes that were often developed in them ? 

 By the marvellous manner in which he developed methods 

 of keeping organisms from the wounds, he was able to 

 maintain an aseptic condition through which, in old 

 erysipelas- and gangrene-infected wards, he was able to 

 obtain results which compared most favourably with those 

 obtained under the best hygienic conditions. His method 

 revolutionised surgery, and has, directly and indirectly, been 

 instrumental in saving an incalculable number of valuable 

 human lives. Lister, like Pasteur, was able to apply 

 practically for the alleviation of human suffering, the results 

 of researches which in the hands of other men had re- 

 mained of merely theoretical interest and value. 



Having settled this question of a spontaneous genera- 

 tion, Pasteur next turned his attention to a more careful 

 study of the processes of fermentation in wine, and to the 

 wine diseases through which so much wine was rendered of 

 little value and even unsaleable. His previous researches, 

 of course, led him to suppose that the disease was due to 

 some special kind of fermentation, the result of the action 

 of an organised ferment. He found that the Mycoderma 

 vini was sometimes present, setting up acid fermentation. 

 The bitter taste sometimes developed was also traced to 



