SPONTANEOUS GENERATION. 593 



hay-germs. The infusion in this cage inf.-ets it*elf with- 

 al inoculation, and its subsequent resistance to 

 -often very great. On the Is- h last 



I purposely infected the air of our laboratory with the 

 U'Timnal dust of a sapless kind of hay mown in 1875. 

 Ten groups of flasks were charged with turnip mf 

 prepared in the infected labor.. -id were afterward 



ted to the boiling t :',r jwriods varying 



from !."> miii Out of the ten f\ 



only one was sterilized that, namely, whieh had been 



1 for four hours. Kvery flask of the nine irronps 

 which had been boiled for !.". 30, 45, 60, 75, 90, 106, r,">, 

 and 180 minutes respectively, bred !-. misms after 

 The same is true of other vegetable infusions. On the 

 28th of February last, for example, I boiled six flasks, 

 containing cucumber infusion prepared in an infected 

 atmosphere, for neriods of 1 '. and 180 



minutes. Kvery flask of the group subsequently dev< 

 organ ' in the same day, in the case of three f: 



the boiling was prolonged to 240, 300, and :{Uo mi 

 and these three flasks were completely sterilized. Animal 

 infusions, which under ordinary circumstances are ren 

 infallibly barren by five minutes' boiling, behave like the 

 vegetable infusions in an atn. i with hay- 



14. On the 3<>th of March, for example, five flasks 

 were charged with a clear infusion of beef and i..il--d for 60 

 minuted, 12o minutes, 180 minutes, ^4) minutes, an 

 minutes, respectively. Every one of them became subse- 

 quently crowded with organisms, and the same happened 

 to a perfectly pellucid mutton infusion prepared at the 

 same The cases are to be numbered by hundreds in 



which similar powers of resistance were manifested l>y 



; Hi- most diverse kinds. 



In the ; of such facts I would ask my colleague 



whether it is necessary to dwell for a single Instant <>n the 



led ness of the evidence which 1--I t<> tin 

 that all living matter has it> lift- dest rov-d h\ " t h- 1- 

 exposure to the influence of boiling water/' An in 1 



D !> harriMi hy nix mont : 



air maintained at a temp.-ral:ir- !' '.'" degrees Kahr.. 

 inoeiiljit.-d with full-grown ftCtive iia<-t--!ia. lill.s itsi-lf in 

 two days with M H to l>e kill- 



few minutes' exposure to a temj>* i.ttuiv mm -h Indow that 



