116 PASTEUE: THE HISTOKY OF A MIND 



Joubert were in reality convinced that there are germs in 

 all water, even in that which has been carefully distilled, 

 when it is collected in receptacles which have been 

 washed with water containing germs. This fact had 

 already been established by Burdon Sanderson, but the 

 French savants expanded it to a remarkable degree, and 

 stated it more precisely. They also recognized that 

 only the waters from deep sources, those which had 

 undergone in the soil a slow and long filtration through 

 capillary spaces, reached the surface without bringing 

 back the germs which they contained in abundance 

 when they penetrated the soil. They were filtered. 

 We find there all the ideas which have been so useful to 

 us later on the subject of the distribution of germs in 

 water, and out of which was evolved for purposes of 

 sterilization, the Chamberland filter, which has been of 

 such great hygienic value. 



Nevertheless, this explanation did not explain every- 

 thing, and it happened sometimes that when the potash 

 solution had been thoroughly sterilized, or even replaced 

 by an equivalent fragment of potash heated to redness, 

 nevertheless the urine, sterile up to that time, became 

 populated. It is then the urine which supplies the 

 germs: they had not been destroyed by the boiling to 

 which it had been subjected, and thus was introduced 

 into science this very fertile idea that germs could 

 exist in a living state in a nutrient liquid and not develop. 

 Behold the contribution of Bastian! Where Pasteur 

 saw nothing develop, he said: " There is nothing;" 

 Bastian entered the field and said: "Without your know- 

 ing it, there is something of which you prevent the evo- 

 lution." Pasteur retraced his steps and admitted: 

 it is true ! but this something is a germ, and if it remains 

 inert, it is because in all living species the first steps in 

 life are the most difficult to make. 



