SJ>< 



igators. Its title was // '. and its author 



I'ouchet, director of the .Museum of Natural 



lien. A .-us, learned, full not 



only of scientific but of n :,e threw 



;-gy into the inquiry. Never did a subject 



require the exercise of the cold, critical faculty m:- than 



MI stiuly in tlu- unraveling of 



in tin- preparation of experiments, care 



in their execution, skillful variation of conditions, and 



incessant questioning of results until repetition had placed 



them be\ond douht or question. To a man of Poiich-'t 's 



teMip, the subject u;is full of danger- danger not 



>-d hy the theoretic bias with which he approached it. 



led hy the opening words of his preface: 



Mine, par la meditation, il fut evident pourinoique 



.eration spontaiu'e etait. encore I'm. 



qti'einpluie la nature pour la reproduction des etres, je 

 in'appliipiai a decouvrir par quels pro-- n pouvait 



.ir ;i en mettre lea phenonienes en evidence." It is 

 needless to say that such a prepossession required a strong 

 curb. Pouchct repeated the experiments of Sehul/- 



inn with results diametrically opposed to theirs. !! 



heaped experiment upon experiment and argument upon 



argument, spicing with the sarcasm of th> the 



f the man of science. In view of the multitudes 



> d to produce the observed results, he ridiculed the 



assumption of atmospheric germs. This was one of his 



strongest points. " Si les Proto- organ ismes que nous voyons 



pulluler pai tout ct dans tout, avuient leurs germes dis- 



semine- dans ratmo.-phere, dans la proportion mathema- 



tiquement indi : elTet , 1'aii en so rait totah 



O!>M i, aticoup plus serres 



quo les globules d'eau qui formeut nos images epais. 11 



- la la moindre exageiation." liecun itiLr to the 



snoject, he exclaims: " L'air dans leqtiel nous vivons I 



lie la densite du f.-r." There is often a virulent < 



ll in a confident t- this hardihood ofargumen- 



n wa8 sure to influence minds ot by 



thority. Had Poiichet kiiou u that 



" the hli.' '.tied jiai ' 



through which the sun : would hardly have 



i upon (his line of argunn 



m<|iiiry Htrengthened th< 



