SECOND LECTURE. 



BASTIAN. 



The presentation of this subject would be incomplete with- 

 out some reference to the view of the de novo origin of life, 

 " Archebiosis." This view has been held by learned men in 

 all historical ages of the world, though it has never, at any 

 time, been generally adopted. Such a view was, perhaps, 

 more prevalent in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries than 

 at any other time in the world's history. Bastian, the great- 

 est exponent of that view, however, lives in the present, and 

 I have thought best to defer mention of it to this time, 

 especially as it affects our subject, " The Germ Theory of 

 Disease/ 7 only incidentally. 



This great experimentalist, in his theories, does not depart 

 markedly from the theory held by the chemists and vitalists, 

 but in a large degree adopts the views of both and forms a 

 connecting link between the two. It is, also, Here again note- 

 worthy that the facts developed by either and both these are 

 made to serve Dr. Bistian's purpose almost as well as those 

 developed by himself. Taking the molecular movement 

 theory, as developed by the great exponent of that view of 

 fermentation, Liebig, he claims that this same molecular 

 movement, under certain circumstances, actually passes over 

 into vital manifestations, furnishing the living forms found 

 in the culture fluids contained in the experimental flasks of 

 Pasteur. 



He claims to have produced these living forms experiment- 

 ally, especially from infusions of hay and turnips, which he 

 first boiled in his flasks, and while boiling, hermetically sealed, 



