132 The Microscopic Germ Theory of Disease. By H. C. Bastian. 
after a short time, of bacteria. A physicist or chemist might con- 
ceive it possible that, as a consequence of such admixture, a com- 
pound not previously existing might have been more or less slowly 
formed — as this, at all events, is one of the modes by which new 
chemical compounds are engendered. But this point of view Dr. 
Sanderson will not seriously entertain — indeed, his remarks seem 
only explicable from the point of view of a foregone conclusion that 
archebiosis is an impossible process, and therefore on no account to 
be admitted as an interpretation of the facts. In reply to an 
imaginary objection, alleging that he had no proof that the dust 
contained anything living, he says with great naivete : “ True ; but 
I have proof that it contains that which produces life, and express 
this state of things — viz. the absence of manifestations of life on 
the one hand, and on the other the fact that the stuff in question 
possesses the power of impregnating something else which before 
was barren — by saying that the dust possesses latent vitality.” 
The legitimacy of the inference does not seem very apparent to me, 
if it is to be taken in any other than a poetical sense ; yet this is 
the only evidence adduced in favour of the assumed existence of an 
extraordinary state in which bacteria may exist — a state in which 
they are assumed to be capable of resisting influences which are 
admitted to be destructive to all actually known forms of life. Of 
course, on the same grounds, the physicist might argue that 
“ friction possesses latent electricity,” or the chemist that “ oxygen 
possesses latent acidity,” but it seems very questionable whether 
such statements would be regarded as serviceable additions to 
science. Neither can we consider that any further light is thrown 
upon this notion of “ latent vitality ” by Dr. Sanderson’s concluding 
observations upon the subject, in which he says : * “ The vital 
activities of the organism are stored up for the future, the 
individual being for this very end endowed with the power of 
resisting external agencies, and thereby of enduring for an indefinite 
period.” As to such teleological notions I have nothing to say ; I 
prefer keeping to the region of fact and warranted inference. 
These, however, are the arguments by which a belief in the occur- 
rence of archebiosis and heterogenesis is for the time averted. 
Before drawing my remarks on this section of the subject to a 
close, I would point out that the views admitted by Dr. Beale, and 
those who think with him, those admitted by Dr. Sanderson, Pro- 
fessor Kiihne, and Dr. Tielgel, as well as those recognized by myself 
and others, all coincide with one another on a certain common 
ground. We are agreed as to the fact that bacteria are abundantly 
present within the body, or that they may appear therein under 
certain conditions independent of any immediate external contamina- 
* ‘ British Medical Journal,’ April 3, p. 436. 
