108 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



I. The Facts of Anaerobiosis. — So incessant and so absolute is 

 the need of oxygen by the human organism and by animal 

 organisms in general, that in the half-century following the 

 momentous work of Lavoisier the belief in oxidation or " com- 

 bustion " as a primary process of life came to be an idee fixe 

 among physiologists, in spite of the fact that Spallanzani, 1 who 

 was almost contemporary with Lavoisier, had shown that 

 infusorial animalcules can thrive when the supply of oxygen is 

 reduced to a minimum (Spallanzani operated with air pressures 

 of from one to three inches) and that the production of carbonic 

 acid gas continues, in some cases without diminution, when the 

 supply of oxygen is entirely cut off. 



But everyday familiar experience proved too strong and so 

 it was that the proof came as a shock when the existence of 

 beings was established which not only did not need oxygen but 

 to which the slightest trace of oxygen is as fatal as lack of it is 

 to us. Had the discovery been announced with anything less 

 than the preponderant authority of Pasteur it must have long 

 remained unrecognised. Pasteur's first communication was 

 published in 1861 and was entitled "Animalcules infusoires 

 vivant sans gaz oxygene libre et determinant des fermentations." 2 

 In a footnote he remarks : " I propose, with all reserve, these 

 new words, aerobies and auaerobies, to indicate the existence of 

 two classes of primitive beings, one incapable of living save in 

 the presence of oxygen ; the other able to multiply indefinitely 

 without contact with this gas." 



During the half-century that has followed this announcement, 

 this capacity of existing, for a time at least, in the complete 

 absence of uncombined oxygen — facultative anaerobiosis — has 

 been shown to be of wide occurrence in both the plant and animal 

 kingdoms. 3 On the other hand, the possibility of complete and 

 unconditional anaerobic existence has been repeatedly denied ; 

 needless to say, it is one of the most difficult things in the world 

 to establish the absence of oxygen. Thus Beijerinck 4 was able 



1 Memoirs of Respiration, English translation, 1804. 

 ' 2 Comptes rendus, 344, 52, 1861. 



3 For an admirable summary, with full literature, cf. E. J. Lesser, " Das Leben 

 ohne Sauerstoff," Ergeb. d. Physiol, p. 742, 8, 1909 ; excellent historical reviews 

 maybe found in Jacques Loeb, Pfiueger's Arch. 249, 62, 1895 ; H. Winterstein, 

 "Atmung d. Geweben," Zeit. f. Allg. Physiol. 315,6, 1906; J. Kursteiner, Cent./. 

 Bakt. II. 109, 19, 1907. 



4 Arch. Neerland, Series II. 397, 2, 1899 ; 131, 9, 1904. 



