SPONTANEOUS GENERATION 349 



ground; and tlie argument that bacteria and their germs, 

 being destroyed at 140°, must, if they appear after ex- 

 posure to 212°, be spontaneously generated, is, I trust, 

 silenced forever. 



Through the precautions, variations, and repetitions 

 observed and executed with the view of rendering its 

 results secure, the separate vessels employed in this in- 

 quiry have mounted up in two years to nearly ten thou- 

 sand. 



Besides the philosophic interest attaching to the prob- 

 lem of life's origin, which will be always immense, there 

 are the practical interests involved in the application of 

 the doctrines here discussed to surgery and medicine. 

 The antiseptic system, at which I have already glanced, 

 illustrates the manner in which . beneficent results of the 

 gravest moment follow in the wake of clear theoretic in- 

 sight. Surgery was once a noble art; it is now, as well, 

 a noble science. Prior to the introduction of the antisep- 

 tic system, the thoughtful surgeon could not have failed 

 to learn empirically that there was something in the air 

 which often defeated the most consummate operative skill. 

 That something the antiseptic treatment destroys or ren- 

 ders innocuous. At King's College Mr. Lister operates 

 and dresses while a fine shower of mixed carbolic acid 

 and water, produced in the simplest manner, falls upon 

 the wound, the lint and gauze employed in the subse- 

 quent dressing being duly saturated with the antiseptic. 

 At St. Bartholomew's Mr. Callender employs the dilute 

 carbolic acid without the spray; but, as regards the real 

 point aimed at — the preventing of the wound from becom- 

 ing a nidus for the propagation of septic bacteria — the 

 practice in both hospitals is the same. Commending it- 



