OBJECTIONS TO THE GERM THEORY. 81 



experimenting with pure cultures of the fermentative 

 organisms were understood, and by the help of the 

 results so obtained a more accurate knowledge of the 

 products of fermentation and of the equation according 

 to which the material was broken up in the individual 

 fermentations was gained. These questions even now 

 form the subject of the most active discussion and work, 

 and it seems as if, by the aid of the most recent and 

 important improvements in the methods of pure culti- 

 vation of the micro-organisms, we may arrive at a pre- 

 cise knowledge of the different fermentative processes, 

 such as Pasteur and numerous other supporters of the 

 germ theory have striven for a long time to obtain. 



Objections to the Germ Theory. 



In what has gone before, the vitalistic theory has 

 been represented as a completed whole, of which the 

 development seemed to be steady, and with scarcely a 

 trace of fundamental objections and attacks. This, Objections to 

 however, has by no means been the case ; on the contrary, 

 from an early period adversaries of the new teaching 

 have appeared, have laid] bare with much acuteness all 

 its weak points, and have sought to upset the propositions 

 of Pasteur and his followers by numerous experiments. 



The following were the chief objections : 



1. Various observers found that fermentation and i : Fermenta- 

 putrefaction occurred in numerous experiments, even 

 when the entrance of micro-organisms was completely ^GT f 

 prevented. In the interior of dead bodies, in the contents organisms. 

 of hatched but uninjured hens' eggs, in dead embryos of 

 man and animals, intense putrefaction was often present. 

 Under similar conditions lactic, acetic, and butyric fer- 

 mentations were also repeatedly observed (Colin, Billroth, 

 Hiller, Schroder, Hoppe-Seyler, Kuhne). Numerous 

 experiments were also made by Hoppe-Seyler, Billroth, 

 Tiegel, Servel, Paschutin, Sanderson, Nencki, and others, 

 in which putrescible materials were kept for a long time 

 with such precautions that entrance of organisms ap- 

 parently could not occur ; nevertheless, in many cases, 



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