'ONTAN1-: XBRA Tl< 577 



him, the shaking asunder by chemical : 



of unstab. >es tin- lifr of our flasks, then, 



.-il from </">/ particles? If my co-iiiqnirer iboold 



Yes," then 1 would ask him, ' What warran 1 

 re offer for such an assumption;' Where. amid the 

 multitude of vital phenomena in which i - have 



I, is the slightest countenance gi\ 



the notion that the sowing of dead particle.- iuce ii 



living cr<> \\itlin. >ig, had he studied 



tiolis of the i: - ill relation to I 



a miii<i nissed the 



i. He, houever. m-- 



, and fell into error but not into error HO 



iat in support :i his ant lioi it v has been in- 



. Were lie now alive, he would, I dot: pudi- 



ate t!i n made of his name Lirbi^'s \ iew of fer- 



mentation wasat least a seientil: nnled on profound 



conceptions of molecular instability. Hut this view by no 



means involves the notion that the planting of dead particles 



plittern "as Colin contemptuously calls them 



is followed by the sprouting of infusorial life. 



us now return to London and fix our attention on 



the dust of //> air. Suppose a room in which the house- 

 maid has just finished her work to be completely do>ed, 

 with the exception of an aperture in a shutter th; 

 which a sunbeam enters and crosses the room. The 



16 track of the light. I. be placed 



aperture to condense irallel ra_. 



'rged to a cone, at the apex of which the <i 



Imost unbroken whiteness by the i ->f its 



illumination. Defended from all gb !iarly 



to this scat t- 'red light. The floating dn>t of 

 don rooms is organic, and may be bnimil without leaving 

 visible residue. The action of a spirit-lamp flame upon the 

 ing matter has been elsewhere thus described: 



In n i! beam wl: !y illuininatfi tin- d 



laboratniy, I placed an iffnlted *( i tin* Hiiiiif. 



n. were M" wr-atlis f darRBMi r8Biiilliiiir 



an ititntM-ly l>la< . placing the flaiue ml * 



IK-MMI. the (tame dark iniOTnt irtoriuod upwui 



larki-r tlinn i 1 \er aeeo i -m thi- 

 of a uteamer; and thrir r-wmllance to smoke wan so perfect 



