SPONTANEOUS GENERATION. 331 



colleague whether it is necessary to dwell for a single 

 instant on the one-sidedness of the evidence which led 

 to the conclusion that all living matter has its life 

 destroyed by * the briefest exposure to the influence of 

 boiling water.' An infusion proved to be barren by six 

 months' exposure to moteless air maintained at a tem- 

 perature of 90 Fahr., when inoculated with full-grown 

 active bacteria, fills itself in two days with organisms 

 so sensitive as to be killed by a few minutes' exposure 

 to a temperature much below that of boiling water. 

 But the extension of this result to the desiccated ger- 

 minal matter of the air is without warrant or justifica- 

 tion. This is obvious without going beyond the 

 argument itself. But we have gone far beyond the 

 argument, 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 de- 

 fusion. 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, 

 must, if they appear after exposure to 212, be sponta- 

 neously generated, is, I trust, silenced for ever. 



Through the precautions, variations, and repetitions 

 observed and executed with the view of rendering its 

 results secure, the separate vessels employed in this 

 enquiry 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 appli- 

 cation of the doctrines here discussed to surgery and 

 medicine. The antiseptic system, at which I have 

 already glanced, illustrates the manner in which bene- 

 ficent results of the gravest moment follow in the 

 wake of clear theoretic insight. Surgery was once a 



51 



