46 THE EVOLUTION OF LIFE 
hitherto to make his observations on a_ limited 
number of eggs and seeds, there was the chance that 
more extended observations might reveal some which 
were capable of resisting this generally destructive 
influence. He says he had never lost his hope— 
with regard to seeds more especially—since he had 
seen a Statement by Duhamel to the effect that some 
grains of wheat had germinated after having been 
heated in a stove to a temperature above the boil- 
ing point of water.1_ And as there is a considerable 
resemblance between seeds and eggs, Spallanzani 
was led to hope that something of the same alleged 
extraordinary capacity for resisting heat might be 
possessed by the eggs or germs of such organisms 
as make their appearance in previously boiled fluids. 
He was therefore stimulated to undertake fresh 
observations upon eggs and seeds generally, with the 
view, on the one hand, of ascertaining the precise 
temperature which proved fatal to each kind; and, 
on the other, of finding out whether these eggs or 
seeds were capable of resisting a greater degree of 
heat than the several animals or plants to which they 
belonged. 
In carrying out these inquiries Spallanzani adopted 
the following method (Zoc. cet. p. 53): He placed 
the eggs, seeds or organisms made use of in his 
1 Heated in all probability in the dry state. But it is well known 
that seeds and desiccated lower animals can resist the influence of 
heat much better in the dried state than when they are thoroughly 
moistened and then heated; and it is as to the effects of heat upon 
living matter under the latter conditions that we are at present 
concerned—for to such conditions the living matter will always be 
exposed in our experiments. 

