144 MEMORANDA. 
conclude that the air of Maladetta, and, in general, the air of 
high mountains, does not fulfil the conditions which M. 
Pasteur predicted of it. Atarecent meeting of the Paris 
Academy M. Pasteur, fin vindication of his original theory, 
made the following remarks :—‘‘ The attentive reader will 
see that I do not make use in this discussion of the advantage 
which my opponents give me by not speaking of Mucedine 
and Infusoria 11 more than four of their eight flasks, a 
circumstance which proves that the results which are stated 
to be contradictory to my own in reality confirm them; and 
this remark would lead one to suppose that the four flasks 
alluded to contained neither Mucedinee nor Infusoria. 
_At the meeting of the Academy on the 16th ult., a note 
was read from M. Joly, stating that these four flasks did 
contain organic matter, and that, if no mention of the circum- 
stances was made in the note presented to the Academy, it 
was simply a mistake of M. Musset, who prepared the paper. 
« M. Pasteur,” continues M. Joly, ‘is entirely mistaken ; he 
has judged us without hearing us; after having asked for 
information respecting the four flasks, he did not allow him- 
self time to receive an answer; if he had waited{one day more, 
he would have been spared the contradiction we are forced 
to give him.,”’ 
In announcing that M. Joly’s letter would be inserted in 
the Comptes-Rendus, M. Flourens said— Several newspapers 
have reproached me with not giving my opinion on sponta- 
neous generation. AslongasI had not formed an opinion I 
had nothing tosay. My opinion is, however, now formed, and 
I will giveit. M. Pasteur’s experiments are decisive. What 
is necessary for the production of animalcules if spontaneous 
generation be a fact? Air and liquid susceptible of pu- 
trescence. But M. Pasteur puts air and liquids susceptible 
of putrescence together, and nothing happens. There is no 
such thing as spontaneous generation. ‘T'o doubt any longer 
is to misunderstand the question.” 
M. de Quatrefages believed that, if the Academy were 
going to institute further experiments, it would be necessary 
that they should be carried on, not only in suitable localities, 
but in several places successively ; for it followed from ex- 
periments formerly undertaken by himself that germs or 
sporules are so abundant in the atmosphere that it might very 
well happen that a hundred or more vessels open in the same 
place might all become the seat of microscopic products. 
M. Henri Sainte-Claire Deville, who has repeated M. 
Pasteur’s experiments before a numerous audience at his lec- 
tures on chemistry at the Sorbonne, and has always found 
