232 THE EVOLUTION OF LIFE 
Chamberland, the former assistant of Pasteur and 
the present sub-director of the Pasteur Institute, 
worked, as he tells us, for two years in Pasteur’s 
laboratory in the preparation of his thesis for 
a Doctorate in Science, which was_ entitled, 
“Recherches sur lorigine et la développement 
des organismes microscopiques’”—the object of 
these investigations being an attempt (deemed 
successful) to rebut the evidence adduced by 
myself and others in favour of the de xovo origin 
of living organisms. During this work Chamberland 
thoroughly tested the ability of the spores of Bacilli 
to resist heat when immersed in water and in various 
acid, neutral, and alkaline infusions; and the con- 
clusion to which he arrived touching these various 
fluids containing such germs was this :-— 

“‘A temperature of 115° C. sterilises them completely and 
most rapidly.” 
And the context shows that he means by this, as 
he subsequently repeated in the Comptes Rendus 
(1879, 1. p. 659), that in a minute or two such a 
temperature suffices to kill all these spores when 
immersed in such fluids. 
It behoves us to see again, therefore, what positive 
results can be obtained with fluids heated to 115°C. 
and over, since this temperature has been so de- 
liberately and authoritatively declared to be lethal 
for all germs or spores immersed in fluids. 
Trials were at first made with several different 
solutions, nearly all of which contained an am- 
moniacal salt in combination with other bases or 
