i68 Appendix. 



which was surrounded by ice. Water was thus obtained from 

 different localities. It was carefully enclosed in glass tubes and 

 submitted to examination. The liquid thus condensed was at 

 first, colorless, clear, and contained no living being. There 

 were, however, "myriads of spherical roundish and fusiform 

 spores, pale cells and semi transparent ovoid bodies," besides, of 

 course, tlie foreign matters. At the end of fifteen hours large 

 numbers of living bacteria were found ; in forty-eight hours vi- 

 brios and spirilla swarmed in abundance, and in three days 

 monads, whose incubation is slower, were also present. Just in 

 proportion as this mass of life appeared, the spores and semi-trans- 

 parent corpuscles disappeared'' These experiments, varied in 

 many ways, even to the extent of sowing as seed the particles ob- 

 tained from ihe air, and thus propagating infusorial life, were 

 demonstrative of the actual existence of organic germs in the 

 atmosphere. In this way the work of the Commission was ma- 

 terially aided, and the decision which they rendered was generally 

 accepted as conclusive against spontaneous generation. 



The heterogenists, however, even to-day do not accept these 

 conclusions, and, although they grant that the usual mode of the 

 development of infusorial life is from pre-existing germs, they 

 claim that, under exceptional conditions, it may arise sponta- 

 neously. Foremost among these advocates, and conspicuous for 

 liis attainments, is Dr. H. Charlton Bastian, of London. His 

 labors in this direction and his publications, both fugitive and 

 systematic,' are familiar to you all. I shall, therefore, for lack 

 of time attempt no description, not even a summary of his ex- 

 periments, but this sketch would be incomplete without a refer- 

 ence to them, I would in no way underestimate their importance 

 as contributions to our knowledge on the subject, but after exam- 

 iuati(m of all the evidence which has been accessible to me, I 

 am unable to see that his work has advanced the main question 



1 The Modes of the Origin of Lowest Organisms, including a discussion of the 

 Experiments of M. Pasteur, and a Reply to some Statements by Profs. Huxley and 

 Tyndall. London, 1871. 



The Beginnings of Life: being some Account of the Xature, Modes of Origin 

 and Transformations of Lower Organisms. 2 Vols., Jjondon, 1S72. 



