398 THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 



1 in favour of conclusions based upon evidence which is 

 comparatively worthless : and, by such illogical methods, 

 M. Pasteur proclaims that he has c mathematically 

 demonstrated' the truth of his own views. Un- 

 foitunately for the cause of truth, many have been 

 only too much blinded by his skill and precision as a 

 mere experimenter. 



i An attempt has been made to show the incon- 

 1 clusiveness of M. Pasteur's mode of reasoning on this 

 point, principally with the view of preventing similar 

 deductions being drawn from observations and experi- 



ments of the same nature by subsequent workers. Other- 

 wise it would not have been at all necessary. For so 

 far from there being any truth in M. Pasteur's assump- 

 tion that Bacteria and their germs are not killed in 

 slightly alkaline or neutral fluids raised to a temperature 

 of 2i2F, we have found that experiment and observa- 

 tion alike seem to show that they are killed when 

 such fluids are raised for two or three minutes to a 

 temperature of 140 F. Nay, more, taking M. Pasteur 

 even upon his own ground using boiled acid infusions, 

 in which he admits that all germs of preexisting life 

 are killed we find, nevertheless, as others have 

 found, that such infusions, contained within heated 

 and hermetically-sealed flasks, will speedily become 

 turbid, owing to the presence of multitudes of living 

 organisms. 



There being no valid reasons, therefore, for our belief 

 in the assumption that Bacteria^ Fibriones, and their 



