284 THE FLOATING-MATTER OF THE AIR. 



—danger not lessened by the theoretic bias with which 

 he approached it. This is revealed by the opening 

 words of his preface : ' Lorsque, par la meditation, il 

 flit evident pour moi que la generation spontanee etait 

 encore I'un des moyens qu'emploie la nature pour la re- 

 production des etres, je m'appliquai a decouvrir par 

 quels precedes on pouvait parvenir a en mettre les 

 phenomenes en evidence.' It is needless to say that 

 such a prepossession required a strong curb. Pouchet 

 repeated the experiments of Schulze and Schwann with 

 results diametrically opposed to theirs. He heaped ex- 

 periment upon experiment and argument upon argu- 

 ment, spicing with the sarcasm of the advocate the 

 logic of the man of science. In view of the multitudes 

 required to produce the observed results, he ridiculed 

 the assumption of atmospheric germs. This was one 

 of his strongest points. ' Si les Proto-organismes que 

 nous voyons pulluler partout et dans tout, avaient leurs 

 germes dissemines dans I'atmosphere, dans la propor- 

 tion mathematiquement indispensable a cet effet, I'air 

 en serait totalement obscurci, car ils devraient s'y 

 trouver beaucoup plus serres que les globules d'eau qui 

 forment nos nuages epais. II n'y a pas la la moindre 

 exageration.' Recurring to the subject, he exclaims : 

 ' L'air dans lequel nous vivons aui ait presque la den- 

 site du fer.' There is often a virulent contagion in a 

 confident tone, and this hardihood of arginnentative 

 assertion was sure to influence minds swayed not by 

 knowledge, but by authority. Had Poucliet known 

 that ' the blue ethereal sky ' is formed of suspended 

 particles, through which the sun freely shines, lie would 

 hardly have ventured upon this line of argument. 



Pouchet's pursuit of this inquiry strengthened the 

 conviction with which lie began it, and landed him in 

 downright credulity in the end. I do not question 



