310 ROMANCE OF LOW LIFE AMONGST PLANTS. 



the question was not satisfactorily disposed of ; but 

 reappeared w'th renewed vigour when two eminent 

 Frenchmen, Pouchet and Pasteur, came forward as 

 the champions on either side. This was a long and 

 hotly contested duel, which was watched with intense 

 interest throughout Europe. M. Pasteur verified a 

 number of experiments, criticized and condemned 

 others, and, above all, demonstrated the weaknesses of 

 M. Pouchet's methods, and succeeded in putting his 

 opponent in the wrong. 



The position at this point is thus summarized by 

 Professor Huxley^: "Not content with explaining 

 the experiments of others, M. Pasteur went to work to 

 satisfy himself completely. He said to himself, ' If 

 my view is right, and if, in point of fact, all these 

 appearances of spontaneous generation are altogether 

 due to the falling of minute germs suspended in the 

 atmosphere, — why, I ought not only to be able to 

 show the germs, but I ought to be able to catch and 

 sow them, and produce the resulting organisms.' 

 He accordingly constructed a very ingenious appa- 

 ratus to enable him to accomplish the trapping of 

 the 'germ dust' in the air. He fixed in the window 

 of his room a glass tube, in the centre of which he 

 had placed a ball of gun-cotton, which, as we all 

 know, is ordinary cotton-wool, which from having 

 been steeped in strong acid, is converted into a sub- 

 stance of great explosive power. It is also soluble 

 in alcohol and ether. One end of the glass tube was, 

 of course, open to the external air ; and, at the other 



* Professor Huxley, " On our Knowledge of the Causes of the Pheno- 

 mena of Organic Nature," p. 77. (1S63). 



