8PONTANKOU8 OKM-:n.\ I ION. 569 



the flasks thus supplied with ghici i si^ns of life 



rWBld, while eight out of ' f the au. 



applied with the MI* of the plains, became crowded \\ith 

 life. He took his Ihwka into refl under the <>!. 



ry of Paris, and found the still air in tin 



f i;encrati\c p.. \\.-r. These and other r.xperim. 

 carried out with a severity perfectly obviona to the instni< 

 scientific reader, and accompanied hy a logic equally 

 severe, restored the conviction that, even in these h> 

 reaches of the scale of bring, life does not appear without 

 the operation of antecedent I 



main position of Pasteur has been strengthened by 

 prac- marches of the most momentous kind, lie has 



applied the knowledge won from his inquiries to the 

 preservation of wine and beer, to the manufacture of 

 vinegar, to the staying of the plague which threatened 

 utter destruction of the silk husbandry of France, and to 

 the examination of other formidable diseMM which assail 

 the higher animals, including man. His relation to the 

 improvements which Professor Lister has introduced into 

 surgery, is shown by a letter quoted in his Elml- 

 Bilre.* Professor Lister there expressly thanks Pu>teur 

 for having given him the only principle 'which could have 



ducted the antiseptic system to a successful issue. The 

 strictures regarding defects of reasoning, to which we 1 

 been lately accushmed, throw abundant light upon their 



shade upon Pa.-teur. 



i, as we have seen, proved the maggots of putrefying 

 flesh to be derived from the eggs of flies; Sehwann pn\ed 

 putrefaction itself to be the concomitant of far lower forms 

 of life than those dealt with by Kedi. Our kiiowl- 

 hero, as elsewhere in connection with this subject, has ! 

 vastly extended by Professor Colin, <>f Brolau. 

 put ," he says, " can occur in a niti -ub- 



stance if its bacteria be destroy el and neu <>n ted 



fro- :'a-tion begins as x.oti a> ' 



FI in the Hinallest niim 



ally or purpnsdv. 1 1 the 



multiplication of t!,- i when they 



exhibit low \itality, and all influences which 



either hinder their development .r kill them. All b:i 



! t:: 



