SPONTANEOUS GENERATION 821 



copper, with two rows of handy little Bunsen burners un- 

 derneath it. This trough, or bath, is nearly filled with 

 oil; a piece of thin plank constitutes a kind of lid for the 

 oil-bath. The wood is perforated with circular apertures 

 wide enough to allow our small flask to pass through and 

 plunge itself in the oil, which has been heated, say, to 

 250° Fahr. Clasped all round by the hot liquid, the in- 

 fusion in the flask rises to its boiling point, which is not 

 sensibly over 212° Fahr. Steam issues from the open 

 neck of the flask, and the boiling is continued for five 

 minutes. With a pair of small brass tongs, an assistant 

 now seizes the neck near its junction with the flask, and 

 partially lifts the latter out of the oil. The steam does 

 not cease to issue, but its violence is abated. With a 

 second pair of tongs held in one hand, the neck of the 

 flask is seized close to its open end, wlare with the other 

 hand a Bunsen 's flame or an ordinary spirit flame is 

 brought under the middle of the neck. The glass red- 

 dens, whitens, softens, and as it is gently drawn out the 

 neck diminishes in diameter, until the canal is completely 

 blocked up. The tongs with the fragment of severed neck 

 being withdrawn, the flask, with its contents diminished 

 by evaporation, is lifted from the oil-bath perfectly sealed 

 hermetically. 



Sixty such flasks filled, boiled, and sealed in the man- 

 ner described, and containing strong infusions of beef, 

 mutton, turnip, and cucumber, are carefully packed in 

 sawdust, and transported to the Alps. Thither, to an 

 elevation of about 7,000 feet above the sea, I invite my 

 co-inquirer to accompany me. It is the month of July, 

 and the weather is favorable to putrefaction. We open 

 our box at the Bel Alp, and count out fifty-four flasks, 



