84 APHORISMS AND REFLECTIONS 



the famous riddle with which Samson perplexed the 

 Philistines: 



" Out of the eater came forth meat, 

 And out of the strong came forth sweetness " 



The great tragedy of Science the slaying of a 

 beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact. 



It remains yet in the order of logic, though not of 

 history, to show that among these solid destructible 

 particles there really do exist germs capable of 

 giving rise to the development of living forms in 

 suitable menstrua. This piece of work was done by 

 M. Pasteur in those beautiful researches which will 

 ever render his name famous ; and which, in spite of 

 all attacks upon them, appear to me now, as they 

 did seven years ago, to be models of accurate 

 experimentation and logical reasoning. He strained 

 air through cotton-wool, and found, as Schroeder 

 and Dusch had done, that it contained nothing com- 

 petent to give rise to the development of life in 

 fluids highly fitted for that purpose. But the 

 important further links in the chain of evidence 

 added by Pasteur are three. In the first place he 

 subjected to microscopic examination the cotton- 

 wool which had served as strainer, and found that 

 sundry bodies clearly recognisable as germs were 

 among the solid particles strained off. Secondly, 

 he proved that these germs were competent to give 

 rise to living forms by simply sowing them in a 

 solution fitted for their development. And, thirdly, 

 he showed that the incapacity of air strained through 

 cotton-wool to give rise to life was not due to any 

 occult change effected in the constituents of the air by 

 the wool, by proving that the cotton-wool might be 



