THE GEXESIS OF LIFE. 177 



on the degree of heat necessary to kill these organisms. He 

 accordingly found that when infected solutions were exposed 

 to a temperature above 158 F. the solutions being of 

 varying nature the contained organisms afterwards ex- 

 hibited no vitality. If, on the contrary, the fluids were 

 exposed to a lower degree of heat say 130 F. they 

 invariably became cloudy and turbid on cooling, this tur- 

 bidity being due to their rapid development and increase. 

 Hence Bastian's present position rests on the supposition 

 that he has determined the death-point, as it were, of lower 

 organisms, and that assuming these latter experiments to 

 remain unchallenged he is entitled to call upon the sup- 

 porters of the germ theory to explain, in consistency with 

 his facts, the occurrence of organisms in fluids from which 

 all vitality has thus been, to all appearance, completely 

 expelled. Possibly there may not be wanting biologists 

 who may possess a faith in the vitality of these lowest organ- 

 isms sufficient to enable them still to hold that the high 

 temperature just mentioned, whilst usually ensuring the 

 sterility of infusions, may nevertheless be counterbalanced 

 by conditions arising within and operating on the infused 

 substance itself. The disintegration and destruction of 

 bacteria may be real in one case and only apparent in the 

 next ; and it is exactly these fine possibilities, which cannot 

 be overlooked and which are difficult of determination, that 

 render the whole question of the most complicated and of 

 almost interminable nature. 



It may be noted in connection with the present subject 

 that a Commission was appointed by the French Academy 

 of Sciences to adjudicate upon matters in dispute between 

 M. Pasteur and Dr. Bastian ; and the scientific world at large 

 awaited with anxiety the decision of this tribunal on the 

 evidence which Dr. Bastian was willing and prepared to 

 submit in support of his allegations regarding the develop- 

 ment of living organisms in hermetically protected solutions. 

 After much discussion, however, the Commission came to 

 naught. Anything more ridiculous or undignified than the 



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