594 FKA GMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



of boiling water. But the extension of this result to the 

 desiccated germinal matter of the air is without warrantor 

 justification. This is obvious without going beyond the 

 argument itself. But we have gone far beyond the argu- 

 ment, and proved by multiplied experiment the alleged 

 destruction of all living matter by the briefest exposure to 

 the influence of boiling water to be a delusion. The whole 

 logical edifice raised upon this basis falls therefore to the 

 ground; and the argument that bacteria and their germs, 

 being destroyed at 140 degrees, must, if they appear after 

 exposure to 212 degrees, be spontaneously generated, is, I 

 trust, silenced forever. 



Through the precautions, variations, and repetitions 

 observed and executed with the view of rendering its re- 

 sults secure, the separate vessels employed in this inquiry 

 have mounted up in two years to nearly ten thousand. 



Besides the philosophic interest attaching to the problem 

 of life's origin, which will be always immense, there are the 

 practical interests involved in the application of the doc- 

 trines here discussed to surgery and medicine. The 

 antiseptic system, at which I have already glanced, illus- 

 trates the manner in which beneficent results of the grav- 

 est moment follow in the wake of clear theoretic insight. 

 Surgery was once a noble art; it is now, as well, a noble 

 science. Prior to the introduction of the antiseptic system, 

 the thoughtful surgeon could not have failed to learn empir- 

 ically that there was something in the air which often 

 defeated the most consummate operative skill. That some- 

 thing the antiseptic treatment destroys or renders innocuous. 

 At King's College Mr. Lister operates and dresses while a 

 fine shower of mixed carbolic acid and water, produced in 

 the simplest manner, falls upon the wound, the lint and 

 gauze employed in the subsequent dressing being duly 

 saturated with the antiseptic. At St. Bartholomew's Mr. 

 Callender employs the dilute carbolic acid without the 

 spray; but, as regards the real point aimed at the pre- 

 venting of the wound from becoming a nidus for the prop- 

 agation of septic bacteria the practice in both hospitals 

 is the same. Commending itself as it does to the scien- 

 tifically trained mind, the antiseptic system has struck deep 

 root in Germany. 



Had space allowed, it would have given rno pleasure to 

 point out the present position of the "germ theory "in 



