496 Notices of Books. [October, 
the liability to error in the conduct of them. All experimenters 
have not attained the same success in the discovery of organisms, 
after like experimentation, as Dr. Bastian. Dr. Burdon San- 
derson in no case obtained evidence of organisms in fluids 
heated from the ordinary temperature of boiling water, prolonged 
for an hour or two in some cases to 200°C. in others. He is 
very careful, however, to” avoid generalisation, and to say that 
these results only occurred (but this uniformly) in the particular 
putrescible solutions he employed : these fluids, however, included 
serum of blood and Pasteur’s solution. Prof. Frankland also 
repeated Dr. Bastian’s experiments, with the result of obtaining 
“not the slightest evidence of life.”’ This is sufficient, we 
think, to show that so difficult a mode of experimentation is not 
free from sources of error. But fully admitting that Dr. Bastian 
met with various fungoid organisms and bacteria, which he has 
carefully figured, let us consider the possible signification of 
these results, setting aside, for the moment, the hypothesis of 
Archebiosis. In the first place, it is necessary to make a division 
between those fungoid bodies, which it would be impossible to 
assert to be actually living at the time of examination, and the 
bacteria, &c., which positively manifested vital movements. It is 
well known that fungi will occur in saline solutions if they con- 
tain nitrogen; and it has been shown that they will freely 
develope in salts, which might, prima facie, appear to afford very 
unlikely pabula. Unless, therefore, every drop of the solutions 
employed by Dr. Bastian had, before experimentation, been mi- 
croscopically searched—a course obviously impossible—the 
objection must be held valid that the fungi which he took out of 
his solutions might be precisely those which he placed into them 
originally. This, however, would not obtain in the case of the 
actively moving bacteria which were met with in a few instances. 
It is urged that direct observation has shown that a temperature 
far short of that of boiling water, 127°5° F., is sufficient to 
destroy the life of all bacteria. A fortiori, therefore, in case of 
the higher temperatures, life must have been impossible. 
Without entering upon the much-debated question of the limits 
of vital resistance to heat, we may yet pause to enquire whether 
it can be proved, with complete satisfaction, that every single 
bacterium-particle in a solution, or in a glass vessel in which a 
solution is contained, is of necessity elevated to the temperature 
indicated by the external means of heating? It is an old 
conjuring trick to plunge the hand, previously moistened with a 
solution of soap, into molten lead, and even iron, and to with- 
draw it completely unharmed. May we not conceive ba¢terium- 
particles in a fluid to be in some cases protected, in like manner, 
by a film ? It must be recollected that if a single particle escape 
the destructive influence, it is capable of begetting myriads in 
the solution. Davaine calculated that one bacterium-particle 
would, in the course of 62 hours, become the parent of 
