SPONTANEOUS GENERATION 819 



did me tlie honor to inform me, as others had informed 

 Pasteur, that the subject * 'pertains to the biologist and 

 physician." He expressed ''amazement" at mj reasoning 

 and warned me that before what I had done could be 

 undone "much irreparable mischief might be occasioned." 

 With far less preliminary experience to guide and warn 

 him, the English heterogenist was far bolder than Pouchet 

 in his experiments, and far more adventurous in his con- 

 clusions. With organic infusions he obtained the results 

 of his celebrated predecessor, but he did much more — the 

 atoms and molecules of inorganic liquids passing under 

 his manipulation into those more "complex chemical com- 

 pounds," which we dignify by calling them "living organ- 

 isms."' As regards the public who take an interest in 

 such things, and apparently also as regards a large por- 

 tion of the medical profession, our clever countryman suc- 

 ceeded in restoring the subject to a state of uncertainty 

 similar to that which followed the publication of Pouchet's 

 volume in 1859. 



It is desirable that this uncertainty should be removed 

 from all minds, and doubly desirable on practical grounds 

 that it should be removed from the minds of medical men. 

 In the present article, therefore, I propose discussing this 

 question face to face with some eminent and fair-minded 

 member of the medical profession who, as regards sponta- 

 neous generation, entertains views adverse to mine. Such 

 a one it would be easy to name; but it is perhaps better 

 to rest in the impersonal. I shall therefore simply call 



^ "It is further held that bacteria or allied organisms are prone to be engen- 

 dered as correlative products, coming into existence in the several fermenta- 

 tions, just as independently as other less complex chemical compounds." — 

 Bastian, "Trans, of Pathological Society, " vol. xxvi. 258. 



