THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 435 



third of the tube was occupied by the fluid, and the 

 remaining two-thirds contained ordinary air. It was 

 exposed for thirty minutes to a temperature of 2I2F, 

 and for forty minutes to 384? (i4OC), in a bath 

 saturated with carbonate of potash. Fifty-nine hours 

 after having taken the tube from the bath (during which 

 time it had been maintained at a temperature of about 

 75 F), it was divided by a file, and the fluid was sub- 

 mitted to a microscopical examination, In the fluid, 

 Prof. Mantegazza says he found living specimens of 

 Bacterium termo. 



In 1862, Prof. Jeffries Wyman, of Cambridge, U.S., 

 performed, and subsequently recorded the following 

 experiments 1 . c Exp. xxxiv. (3.) March 27th. Juice 

 of mutton, in a hermetically sealed flask, was boiled 

 five minutes in a Papin's digester, under a pressure of 

 two atmospheres [i2o-6F], A film formed on the 

 fourth day. It was opened several days later in the 

 presence of Prof. Gray, and found to contain Vibrios 

 and Bacteriums, some of them moving with great 

 rapidity.' 



The next experiment was also made with the same 

 kind of solution 2 . It is thus recorded : c Exp. xxxv. (3.) 

 The same as the preceding, and boiled in Papin's 

 digester ten minutes, and under the pressure of five 



1 ' American Journal of Science and Arts,' July, 1862. 



2 In two other experiments, in which beef juice was employed instead 

 of mutton juice, and in which the flasks were raised to the same tem- 

 peratures for fifteen minutes, no organisms were found. 



F f 2 



