PUTREFACTION AND INFECTION. 99 



thought it desirable to meet this new requirement also. 

 The sealed tubes, which had proved barren in the Royal 

 Institution, were suspended in boxes copiously per- 

 forated, so as to permit of the free circulation of warm 

 air, and placed under the supervision of an intelligent 

 assistant in the Turkish Bath in Jermyn Street. The 

 washing-room of the establishment was found to be 

 particularly suitable for our purpose ; and here, accord- 

 ingly, the boxes were suspended. From two to six days 

 are allowed by Dr. Bastian for the generation of 

 organisms in hermetically-sealed tubes. Mine remained 

 in the washing-room for nine days. Thermometers 

 placed in the boxes, and read off twice or three times a 

 day, showed the temperature to vary from a minimum of 

 101° to a maximum of 1 12° Fahr. At the end of nine 

 days the infusions were as clear as at the beginning. 



They were then removed to a warmer position ; the 

 temperature 115° having been mentioned as favour- 

 able to spontaneous generation. For fourteen days my 

 temperatures hovered about this point, falling once as 

 low as 106°, reaching 116° on three occasions, 118° on 

 one, and 1 1 9° on two. The result was quite the same as 

 that recorded a moment ago. The higher temperatures 

 proved perfectly incompetent to develop life.^ 



Fifty-six observations, including both the maximum 

 and minimum thermometers, were taken while the tubes 

 occupied their first position in the washing-room, and 

 seventy-four while they occupied the second position. 

 The whole record, carefully drawn out, is before me, but 

 I trust the statement of the major and minor limits of 

 temperature will suffice. 



Dr. Bastian's demand for these high temperatures is, 

 as already remarked, quite recent. Prior to my com- 



' My thanks are due to the managers of the bath for their 

 obliging kindness in this matter. 



H 2 



