302 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



air filtered by cotton-wool; air long kept free from 

 agitation, so as to allow the floating matter to subside; 

 calcined air, and air filtered by the deeper cells of the 

 human lungs. In all cases the correspondence between 

 my experiments and those of Schroeder, Pasteur, and 

 Lister in regard to spontaneous generation was perfect. 

 The air which they found inoperative was proved by 

 the luminous beam to be optically pure and therefore 

 germless. Having worked at the subject both by expe- 

 riment and reflection, on Friday evening, January 21, 

 1870, I brought it before the members of the Royal 

 Institution. Two or three months subsequently, for 

 sufficient practical reasons, I ventured to direct public 

 attention to the subject in a letter to the Times. 

 Such was my first contact with this important question. 

 This letter, I believe, gave occasion for the first 

 public utterance of Dr. Bastian in relation to this sub- 

 ject. He did me the honour to inform me, as others 

 had informed Pasteur, that the subject ' pertains to the 

 biologist and physician/ He expressed ' amazement ' 

 at my reasoning, and warned me that before what I 

 had done could be undone ' much irreparable mischief 

 might be occasioned/ With far less preliminary ex- 

 perience to guide and warn him, the English hetero- 

 genist was far bolder than Pouchet in his experiments, 

 and far more adventurous in his conclusions. With or- 

 ganic infusions he obtained the results of his celebrated 

 predecessor, but he did much more the atoms and 

 molecules of inorganic liquids passing under his manip- 

 ulation into those more ' complex chemical compounds,' 

 which we dignify by calling them ' living organisms.' * 



* ' It is further held that bacteria or allied organisms are 

 prone to be engendered as correlative products, coming into ex- 

 istence in the several fermentations, just as independently as 

 other less complex chemical compounds.' Bastian, Trans, of 

 Pathological Society, vol. xxvi. 258. 



