182 THE EVOLUTION OF LIFE 
potassee experiments. Abundant evidence of the 
same kind will be found in later Chapters (xix. and 
xx.) in which the results of my new experiments 
with superheated saline solutions are detailed. 
This is all that is needed for the direct disproof 
of Pasteur’s interpretation of my experiment, namely, 
that the acid urine was not really sterilised by 
boiling ; that it contained germs, previously supposed 
to be dead, because such germs after boiling were no 
longer able to develop and multiply in the acid fluid. 
There are, however, a few collateral points remain- 
ing over from this discussion concerning which 
some words ought to be said. They are these: 
(a) As to the assumed necessity for the experimental 
vessel being superheated; (4) whether ordinary 
liquor potassee is a germ-containing medium; (c) 
whether healthy urine, fresh from the bladder, 
guarded from contamination and in flamdé vessels, 
can be made to ferment ; and (d) the effects of adding 
liquor potassz in different proportions to such urine. 
a. Concerning the assumed necessity for Super- 
heating the Experimental Vessels. 
Although, as I have said, there is no evidence that 
Pasteur in his previous experiments (as recorded in 
1862), ever considered it necessary that the vases 
should be /flambés, this precaution was considered 
desirable by Burdon Sanderson in 1873,,and in the 
experiments which I performed with him in that 
year, two of the third series (p. 105) were made 

