
154 THE EVOLUTION OF LIFE 
Unlike the English investigators he did not 
contest the facts. He said, “Je m’empresse de 
déclarer les experiences de M. le Dr Bastian sont, 
en effet, tres exactes ; elles donneut le plus souvent 
les résultats qu’il indique.” It was in fact the 
interpretation only which he then contested; as he 
declared that the experiments were of the same 
order as some which he published in 1862. The 
fact that the urine had been boiled by me in the acid 
state being rendered nugatory, as Pasteur thought, 
because the liquor potassze had not been heated to 
110 C.; and because, as he thought, this fluid 
contained living germs. He begged me to repeat 
the experiment, using only liquor potassze which had 
been heated to 110° C. 
On July 31 I replied that very many experiments 
had shown me that the liquor potassz only fertilises 
the urine when it is added in quantity not more 
than sufficient to neutralise the quantity of urine 
employed at the time of its addition. And I asked 
him to give some direct proof that germs of Bacteria 
could survive in a fluid so caustic as the liquor 
potasse of the British Pharmacopeia, even for an 
instant, when raised to a temperature of too C. As 
he did not think the high incubating temperature of 
50 C. was necessary, I replied that I considered it 
of much importance, as under its influence fluids 
would often ferment in a few days which at lower 
incubating temperatures would have remained 
sterile. 
In his rejoinder on August 7, Pasteur again re- 
peated that he did not contest my facts, still declar- 
