148 THE EVOLUTION OF LIFE 
results of these latter experiments—in face of the 
view held by M. Pasteur that some Bacteria 
germs are able, in neutral fluids, to survive an 
exposure to a heat of 100° C.—would seem to have 
been fairly met and nullified by the experiments just 
recorded and devised for the purpose, in which the 
urine was boiled in the acid state so as to kill all 
pre-existing living things, and was subsequently 
fertilised by the addition of boiled liquor potasse. 
If we look at these latter experiments from an 
independent point of view, it will be found that this 
fertilisation of a previously barren fluid by boiled 
liquor potassee can only be explained by one or 
other of three hypotheses :— 
1st FL[ypothesis. The borled liquor potasse may act 
asa fertilising agent because rt contains Living germs. 
However improbable this hypothesis may seem on 
the face of it, looking to the caustic nature of the 
fluid and its solvent action on protoplasm, it has 
been actually disproved by many of the experiments 
made during this investigation. These experiments 
have shown that boiled liquor potassz will only act 
as a fertilising agent when it is added in certain 
_ definite proportions. If it acted as a germ-contain- 
ing medium a single drop of it would act just like 
a single drop of tap-water, and would suffice to 
infect many ounces of the sterilised fluid. This, 
however, is never the case; the liquor potassz only 
fertilises the barren wine when it is added in a pro- 
portion which shall not be more than just sufficient 
to neutralise the urine at the time when it is added. 

