SPONTANEOUS GENERATION. 303 



As regards the public who take an interest in such 

 things, and apparently also as regards a large portion of 

 the medical profession, our clever countryman suc- 

 ceeded in restoring the subject to a state of uncertainty 

 similar to that which followed the publication of 

 Pouchet's volume in 1859. 



It is desirable that this uncertainty should be re- 

 moved from all minds, and doubly desirable on practi- 

 cal grounds that it should be removed from the minds 

 of medical men. In the present article, therefore, I 

 propose discussing this question face to face with some 

 eminent and fair-minded member of the medical pro- 

 fession who, as regards spontaneous generation, enter- 

 tains views adverse to mine. Such a one it would be 

 easy to name; but it is perhaps better to rest in the 

 impersonal. I shall therefore simply call my proposed 

 co-enquirer my friend. With him at my side, I shall 

 endeavour, to the best of my ability, so to conduct this 

 discussion that he who runs may read and that he who 

 reads may understand. 



Let us begin at the beginning. I ask my friend to 

 step into the laboratory of the Royal Institution, where 

 I place before him a basin of thin turnip slices barely 

 covered with distilled water kept 

 at a temperature of 120 Fahr. 

 After digesting the turnip for 

 four or five hours we pour off the 

 liquid, boil it, filter it, and obtain 

 an infusion as clear as filtered 

 drinking water. We cool the in- 

 fusion, test its specific gravity, 

 and find it to be 1006 or higher 

 water being 1000. A number 

 of small clean empty flasks, of the 

 shape shown on the margin, are before us. One of them 



