96 THE EVOLUTION OF LIFE 
pure for an indefinite time, and show no evidence of 
the existence therein of living things. These sup- 
posed facts confirmed him in the notion that all 
ferment organisms and their germs were speedily 
killed in such acid fluids when they were raised to 
the temperature of 100° C. 
The lethal influence of such a temperature was, in 
fact, at that time and subsequently, generally ad- 
mitted, and was the cause of the great incredulity 
commonly felt in regard to the results of certain 
experiments recorded by me in 1870-72; and was 
also the cause of the suggestions, made by Professor 
Huxley and others, that the organisms found by me 
in my experimental vessels were dead rather than 
< 
living organisms. 
Thus, at one of the Sectional Meetings of the 
British Association in 1870, the President, after 
referring to some of my experiments, and to the fact 
that all unmistakably vital movements ceased after 
Bacteria had been heated to 212° F., added :!—<‘] 
cannot be certain about other persons, but I am of 
opinion that observers who have supposed that they 
have found bacteria surviving after boiling, have 
made the mistake which I should have done at one 
time, and, in fact, have confused Brownian move- 
ments with true living movements.” His belief was 
so strong, on the one hand, that no Bacteria could 
withstand the temperature of boiling water, and on 
the other, as to the accuracy of Pasteur’s con- 
clusions, that he did not hesitate then, as on other 
occasions, to suggest that the organisms I had 
1 See Report in Quart. Journ. of Microsc. Science, Oct. 1870. 

