AND CONCLUSIONS. 31 



holding from the. press statements concerning these 

 which he had " twice or thrice written down." Had he 

 done so, there would be less reason to condemn or to 

 laugh at the following paragraph with which he con- 

 cludes his last letter to the Editor of the " Times," 

 and retires for the present from the consideration of 

 dust, disease, and germs. " For a long time to come 

 I shall be unable to devote any attention to this sub- 

 ject, and this has caused me to write at what I fear 

 you will consider inexcusable length : were the ques- 

 tion of less practical interest to humanity, I should 

 not have troubled you either with this or with any 

 former communication."* 



It would indeed be difficult to point out a series 

 of conclusions less justified by the experiments. 



flight beyond his facts!" but he tenderly observed, "as long as the 

 heat (dynamic heat of heart by which alone the solid inertia of the freer 

 born Briton is to be overcome) is employed to warm up the truth with- 

 out singeing it overmuch ; as long as this enthusiasm can overmatch its 

 mistakes by unequivocal examples of success, so long am I disposed to 

 give it a fair field to work in." "Times," February iQth, 1870. Such 

 comments are very curious, but they are not in good taste, and are 

 altogether uncalled for and out of place. Dr. Tyndall had no right to 

 speak in the way he has spoken of such a man as William Budd, of 

 Bristol. 



* Dr. Bastian has expressed his opinion of Dr. TyndalFs still more re- 

 cent observations upon the influence of germs and animalcules upon disease 

 as follows : " The question is, however, one of so complicated a nature, 

 that little save amazement will be excited in the minds of those conver- 

 sant with all the difficulties of the problem, that Professor Tyndall 

 should place so much reliance upon indirect evidence towards its solu- 

 tion, and should step forward on the strength of this, with the view of 

 establishing a doubtful theory of disease, to which he, by his own con- 

 fession, has so recently become a convert. " "Times," April I3th, 1870. 



