
EXAMINATION OF PASTEUR’S DOCTRINES 125 
the other possible explanation and jumping to 
the conclusion that the fertility of the former fluids 
was due to the fact that Bacteria and Vibriones or 
their germs were able, in such fluids, to resist the 
destructive influence of 100° C., it is clear that what 
ought to have been done was to institute direct 
experiments upon this question of the thermal death- 
point of the organisms in different fluids. But 
Pasteur never even hinted at the desirability of 
such a proceeding. 
The reader will recollect, however, that I have 
made decisive experiments on this question, which 
have been recorded in Chapters ix. and x. 
It was first shown that in an excellent saline nour- 
ishing fluid, having a neutral reaction (pp. 60-62), 
Bacteria and Vibriones and their germs were killed 
by an exposure for about ten minutes to a tempera- 
ture of 60°C. 
I subsequently showed that they were killed at 
about the same temperatures in organic infusions, 
and that certainly in such infusions, the thermal 
death-point never exceeded 7o C.; and further 
that no difference was met with when dealing with 
an acid turnip infusion or with a neutral or slightly 
alkaline hay infusion. 
Similar temperatures were also shows to be fatal 
to Torulz and Fungus spores generally. 
There was then absolutely no foundation what- 
ever for Pasteur’s mere assumption that certain 
supposed ‘‘germs” of Bacteria and Vibriones were 
not killed in neutral or slightly alkaline fluids heated 
to 100° C. For, seeing that the nourishing fluids 
