27 



with pieces of flesh kept in covered and uncov- 

 ered jars ; and again it tottered vrhen Spallan- 

 zani followed in Eedi's track with incontesti- 

 ble proof of the continued barrenness of a well 

 boiled infusion preserved from contact with 

 air by a sealed glass vessel. Neither investi- 

 gator was able to detect the faintest trace of 

 life after long and patient observation. Yet 

 such a man of genius as Lamarck believed in 

 Spontaneous Generation and many others fell 

 in with his views, indeed it required Schwann's 

 truly scientific and masterly researches to fi- 

 nally disprove the plausible theory in 1837, 

 scarcely eleven years ago. 



I have repeated most of these interesting ex- 

 periments and in addition to these have made 

 many more of my own devising, to attempt 

 to now detail which would tediously and un- 

 instructively prolong this, I have no doubt to 

 you, seemingly already drawn-out Lecture. 



From them I find that Schwann is, in the 

 main, correct ; but further note that the close 

 sealing he has recourse to is unnecessary, mere 

 ly stuffing the mouth of the containing vessel 

 with cotton wool will answer the same purpose : 

 that of a germ barrier, as the most elaborate 

 sealing if the heated wool is held in a forceps. 



